Thousands returned to the streets of major cities across Slovakia on Tuesday to continue their protests against a plan by the new government of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico to amend the country’s penal code.
The changes proposed by the coalition government include a proposal to abolish the special prosecutors’ office, which handles serious crimes such as graft, organized crime and extremism by mid-January.
According to the proposal, those cases will now be taken over by prosecutors in regional offices, which haven’t dealt with such crimes for 20 years.
Michal Simecka, head of the liberal Progressive Slovakia, the strongest opposition party, said the changes “would result in amnesty for mafia and corrupt people.”
The legislation approved by Fico’s government needs parliamentary and presidential approval. The three-party coalition has a majority in parliament.
Fico returned to power for the fourth time after his scandal-tainted leftist party won Slovakia’s Sept. 30 parliamentary election on a pro-Russia and anti-American platform.
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His critics worry that his return could lead Slovakia to abandon its pro-Western course and instead follow the direction of Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
