Thousands Converge Upon Bratislava to Protest Corruption

Bratislava, October 18 (TASR) – Thousands gathered in streets of Bratislava on Friday evening to support For Decent Slovakia protest, which calls for investigation into the murders of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, proper investigation into corruption scandals and the forming of new trustworthy government.

According to protest organiser Karolina Farska, the event is held in response to all current scandals, such as the leaking of information from Threema chat transcripts of entrepreneur Marian K [name abbreviated due to legal reasons -ed.note], who faces charges of ordering the hit against Kuciak, the leaking of Marian K’s recorded conversation with prosecutor Dobroslav Trnka and Gorilla case recording.

“We can see that public pressure pays off; those people are gradually resigning,” said Farska. She believes that Slovakia is undergoing a cleansing process, even though some changes might take longer as they’re not the “work of any single government”.

The crowd walked from Hodzove Namestie up to the Parliament building. Supporting turnout with their own attendance was Czech investigative journalist Pavla Holcova, priest Daniel Pastircak and sociologist Martin Butora.

In front of Parliament, the organisers called upon judge Monika Jankovska, prosecutor Dobroslav Trnka, Special Prosecutor Dusan Kovacik to resign and Robert Fico to retire from politics. They also urged Prosecutor-General Jaromir Ciznar to take action.

More than 500 people marched together for the same cause in Kosice.

Another protest was held in Bratislava at the same time by non-parliamentary For People party, attended also by opposition SaS leader Richard Sulik and Ondrej Dostal (SaS), Progressive Slovakia chair Michal Truban, Together chair Miroslav Beblavy and KDH chair Alojz Hlina. In front of the Government’s Office, they publicly played the alleged Gorilla recording and the conversation between Marian K. and former prosecutor-general Dobroslav Trnka.