Thousands of people gathered again at SNP Square in Bratislava at another rally under the name 'For a Decent Slovakia', with the primary demand of event organisers being the ouster of Police Corps President Tibor Gašpar. This was the fifth nationwide protest of its kind in recent weeks.
The event began with a minute of silence for murdered journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancé Martina Kušnírová with protesters demanding a thorough investigation into their execution-style deaths in February. Protest organiser Karolína Farská stated that the government remains unwilling to accept that the dismissal of the police head is the first step needed for the public to believe that the murder investigations will be investigated independently and that police leadership will be depoliticised. The murdered journalist was uncovering alleged links between Italian mafia and high-level Slovak politicians.
Along with thousands rallying in central Bratislava, approximately 2000 protesters amassed in Košice and a similar figure protested in Prešov and Žilina on Thursday night, along with protests in smaller towns across the country. At the Bratislava event, guest speaker and sociologist Elena Kriglerová addressed the crowd:
"Every single case which is not properly investigated is traumatic for society. If politicians think that it's enough for them to hang on, hoping people will forget about it, they are wrong."
Police Corps President Tibor Gašpar made a brief statement on Friday morning in reaction to the protests calling for his removal:
"Of course I feel the tense atmosphere but I wouldn't dare to judge those who evaluate me and my work from the tribunes, even though they do it without basing their judgement on facts."
President Andrej Kiska stated ahead of Thursday's protests that he expects the police chief will be gone within weeks to calm the protesters. "The Government is facing a challenging task, but we don't have the slightest chance of mending this trust if we aren't able to carry out in the coming days this extremely important thing to calm the situation and gain confidence, namely the resignation of the Police Corps president, Mr. Gašpar," said Kiska.
Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) stated on Wednesday that he is saddened by the ongoing public protests. Pellegrini added that the Gašpar dilemma is a question of personnel which falls under the purview of new Interior Minister Tomaš Drucker (a Smer-SD nominee).
