Organisers of the For a Decent Slovakia rallies consider the attacks from the governing coalition to be totally unacceptable, reported TASR on Tuesday, following the revelation that five of the rally organisers have been questioned by the National Anti-Corruption and Criminal Agency. The initiative also rejects claims that they have been managed and financed from abroad or that they have orchestrated a state coup.
"These are all lies, stupidity and nonsense," said one of the organisers, Juraj Šeliga. "There isn't a single payment from a foreign organisation, and it's out of the question that we have been paid by any American billionaire," he said, referring to American investor with Hungarian roots George Soros, who, according to an anonymous criminal complaint, allegedly paid for the protests. "We don't understand what has been the legitimate reason for it. We haven't done anything wrong," he said, adding that the initiative views these moves as intimidation and bullying.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) stated that he has no information that either the Slovak state authorities or secret services have been misused by monitoring the protest organisers.
"I only get this information from the media, I have no more details about it. I personally have no knowledge that the state authorities or (intelligence) services have been misused for such an activity. I will demand more information when I return to Slovakia," said Pellegrini who is on an official visit to Azerbaijan.
The allegation that the protests were funded by George Soros had also been voiced by former Prime Minister and Smer-SD chair Robert Fico, who resigned after mass protests in early 2018 following the murders of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée.
"We know today that the organisers of protests following the murder of Jan Kuciak were affiliated with organisations financed by George Soros. We know only too well who met whom and who played what role at the time," said Fico in October.
In the face of these accusations, another wave of For a Decent Slovakia protest rallies will commence at 17:00 this Friday evening (November 16) at SNP Square in Bratislava, with parallel protests taking place in Košice, Prievidza, Poprad and in Brussels, Belgium. Banská Bystrica will see its own protest on Saturday.
