The situation in Slovakia is serious. It shows signs of a deliberate organisation of escalating tensions in order to escalate expressions of dissent and to go beyond peaceful protests and continue with further coercive actions. This was stated by the President of the Slovak Republic, Peter Pellegrini, after Thursday's meeting of the Security Council. The government of the Slovak Republic will not take any measures concerning the constitutional right to assemble and organise protests, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) added.
Pellegrini said that if he did not consider the situation serious, he would not have convened the Security Council. The situation in Slovakia shows signs of a targeted organisation of tensions with the aim of escalating expressions of dissent beyond peaceful protests.
According to Pellegrini, the structure of people, organizations and financial flows behind the organization of the protests shows that they are not spontaneous activities, but a targeted effort to destabilize society and attack the constitutional order of the Slovak Republic.
Non-Slovak citizens are also active in Slovakia and are involved in similar activities in other countries.
The Security Council instructed the Government to prepare concrete proposals for measures to stabilise the situation. Pellegrini, however, ruled out the possibility of declaring a state of emergency and stressed that Slovakia must remain a democratic country where power comes from the citizens through democratic elections.
He also drew attention to the need to protect constitutional order. The security forces obtain information by legitimate means and it is their duty to prevent attempts to overthrow the government by coercion and to provoke a political crisis.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Pellegrini expressed support for the right of citizens to demonstrate peacefully. However, he urged them not to be abused and provoked. He also confirmed that Slovakia remains firmly anchored in the European Union and NATO and will actively respond to the challenges facing these organisations.
Fico pointed to the existence of a structure that wants to use the assembly to escalate tensions. He spoke of fears of a possible attempt to organise a coup d'état in Slovakia. He called on citizens not to allow themselves to be used by groups to attack the constitutional set-up of the Slovak Republic.
"We have here a foreign-funded structure linked to the Slovak opposition that wants to abuse the protests that the people have a right to. It's very simple, they will try to have a skirmish, then there will be attempts to get over the fences into the buildings of the Office of the Government, the National Council, the Presidential Palace, then you will see how these protesters will be taken out by the security forces. There will not be 20 cameras like now, but 1740 cameras from all over the world. An image will be created of a Slovak government that is fascist, violent, because it makes order and does not want to allow an attack on the constitutional order, and we are where you were in 2018. I'm sorry, but we are not going to subvert the country." He remarked.
Fico spoke about the evidence that was also presented at Thursday's meeting. He also reported on the resolution adopted by the National Security Council. In it, among other things, they reaffirmed Slovakia's foreign policy orientation based on its membership of the European Union and NATO and rejected the dissemination of false information in this regard. "In this provision of the resolution we clearly reject the lies spread by the Slovak opposition. This government has never taken and will never take any steps regarding Slovakia's foreign policy orientation, and certainly not steps that would call into question our membership of the European Union and NATO," he said.
In its resolution, the Security Council also took note of information gathered by the security and intelligence authorities about the intention of the organisers of the anti-government rallies to change the nature of the events to activities provoking the security authorities to crack down on demonstrators in order to increase social tensions, destabilise the state and change the political situation. It also recommended that the Cabinet take the necessary preventive measures and that the security and intelligence services continue to monitor the situation.
TASR/ gnews - RoZ
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