Slovak protests amid PM Robert Fico’s coup warnings

Tens of thousands of people across Slovakia are demonstrating against Prime Minister Robert Fico’s government, defying his warnings that provocateurs linked to the liberal opposition would use the protests to stage a coup.

The demonstrations are taking place in around 25 Slovak towns and cities, the latest in a series of protests against his populist-nationalist coalition.

Protesters are angry at what they say is FICO’s undermining of the country’s institutions, culture and standing in the EU and NATO, especially its increasing attacks on Ukraine and rapprochement with Moscow.

FICO says it is pursuing a “sovereign” Slovak foreign policy aimed at “the four cardinal points of the compass.”

He denies claims by the opposition that he wants to remove Slovakia from the EU and NATO, saying his country’s membership in both institutions was not in doubt.

The Dennik N website estimated that about 100,000 people in Slovakia attended the protests, with at least 40,000 in the capital alone.

About 10,000 were reported to have been taken to the streets of Banska Bystrica, a city of 75,000.

On Thursday, 15,000 demonstrated in Slovakia’s second city, Kosice, to avoid a clash with a separate event taking place there tonight.

There were no reports of violence or disorder, contrary to FICO warnings this week that provocateurs would encourage protesters to attack public buildings, causing a police reaction leading to larger protests.

Earlier on Friday, FICO told reporters that police would begin deporting several foreign “instructors” who it claimed were in Slovakia to help the opposition try to overthrow its government.

On Wednesday he called a meeting of the Government Security Council, saying intelligence services had concrete evidence that a group of foreign provocateurs who were involved in recent protests in Georgia and in 2014 in Ukraine were actively in Slovakia.

Slovakia’s national intelligence service, the SIS, has confirmed the claims but has given few details. The opposition has little faith in the sister, as it is led by the son of a deputy in Fico’s Smer Party.

FICO said a “large-scale” cyberattack that hit the nation’s health insurer on Friday was a textbook model “on how to take down a disobedient government that has unorthodox views on certain things,” a reference to his opposition to arming Ukraine and his efforts to repair relations with Moscow.

He said such activities were being carried out “by representatives of the opposition, NGOs organized from abroad, foreign instructors and the media.”

Dennik N later reported that the incident was actually a phishing attempt, not a cyberattack, and is not particularly large in scale.

Slovak officials have claimed that a previous cyber attack against the country’s land registry could have come from Ukraine. Kyiv has strongly denied the accusation.