(Bloomberg) -- Thousands of demonstrators assembled in Slovakia’s capital in a second day of protests against what they see as an effort by Prime Minister Robert Fico’s government to steer the country away from the European Union mainstream in its cultural agenda.
The administration has already been criticized for attempts to take control over the media, triggering charges that it’s mirroring policies of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Now Culture Minister Martina Simkovicova and her allies have come under fire for a pledge to make the nation’s culture “Slovak and no other” as part of a battle against what they see as liberal and progressive ideologies. An online petition calling for her dismissal has gained more than 175,000 signatures as her efforts were branded an attempt to turn culture into a tool of state power.
“This government doesn’t care about justice, culture or the well-being of its citizens,” Michal Simecka, an opposition leader, told journalists Tuesday at the Bratislava protest, which the organizers said gathered 18,000 people. “It only cares about revenge and placing its own people into positions of power.”
Simkovicova’s far-right Slovak National Party has been a key tool in Fico’s efforts to oppose liberal policies. In his first public appearance after recovering from an assassination attempt, the premier called in July for a “huge barrier against the nonsensical progressive ideologies that spread like cancer” and said he didn’t want Slovakia to become a “caricature of Western civilization.”
Still, in an open letter on Monday, five former culture ministers, including one from Fico’s Smer party, slammed the government’s efforts for what they called intimidation, manipulation and creating false divisions in society.
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