Bratislava, 18 November 2025 (dpa/MIA) – Tens of thousands of people rallied across Slovakia on Monday evening to protest against the government of left-wing nationalist Prime Minister Robert Fico.

The demonstrations were held to mark the 36th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution against the Communist regime of what was then Czechoslovakia.

Opposition parties and civil society groups, including the "Peace for Ukraine" initiative, had called for rallies.

Organizers said up to 50,000 people braved rain to gather at Freedom Square in Bratislava, opposite the government headquarters.

Participants commemorated the fall of the communist regime and demanded stronger support for Ukraine.

Demonstrators chanted "we've had enough of Fico" and held signs calling for an end to the three-party coalition he leads.

Protesters accused the government of undermining democracy and criticized recent austerity measures aimed at reducing Slovakia's high public debt.

Liberal opposition leader Michal Simečka, whose party moved ahead of Fico's Smer party in recent opinion polls, drew a parallel between past and present in his speech.

Courage and the desire for freedom had motivated the successful protests in 1989, he said.

"These are exactly the two values the communists did not understand and which Robert Fico does not understand today. This is why he will lose, just as the communists lost," the TASR news agency quoted Simečka as saying.

Photo: EPA