2024-01-19 04:34:59
In Slovakia, tens of thousands of people demonstrated once morest a planned criminal law reform, which, among other things, provides for a relaxation of penalties for corruption and has also met with criticism from the European Union. According to the police, around 26,000 people took to the streets in the capital Bratislava on Thursday.
The demonstrators carried placards with slogans such as “Don’t touch our democracy!” and “We will not be silent!” There were also rallies in more than 20 other cities in Austria’s neighboring country.
As part of the reform, the government of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico, which has been in office since October, wants to abolish a special prosecutor’s office that deals with high-profile corruption cases and organized crime. In addition, the penalties for corruption and economic crimes are to be reduced and protection for whistleblowers in the police is to be removed.
Parliament should adopt the reform in an accelerated legislative process. There were already demonstrations once morest the plans in Slovakia at the end of last year.
At the beginning of December, the EU Commission asked the government to suspend the plans and to refrain from using an accelerated legislative procedure. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EUSTA) in Luxembourg criticized the reform plans in the EU member state as “a serious risk of violating the rule of law”. Most recently, the EU Parliament condemned the reform project in a resolution on Wednesday.
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