Commemorating the 28th anniversary of the Candle demonstration

On March 25^th Slovakia will commemorate the Candle demonstration that took place in Bratislava in 1988. It was the first mass demonstration against a totalitarian regime in Czechoslovakia since 1969. It was also the first event in the European Soviet Block that forewent the end of communist rule. On the occasion of the 28^th anniversary of the event President Andrej Kiska lit a candle at the memorial of the Candle Demonstration. "As I was lighting this candle two words came to my mind - freedom and courage. Freedom because of the thousands of people who enormously longed for it. And courage because none of them could have known that the Iron Curtain would fall in six months. Everyone could have only expected repression and attacks against them," the President praised participants of the demonstration of 1988.