Slovakia police arrest former PM Fico ahead of rally

Slovak police on Thursday arrested former Primer Minister Robert Fico in front of live television cameras when he tried to give a statement to the media to start a protest despite restrictions on crowd sizes.

Even medium-sized public gatherings are currently banned in the country, which has one of the highest coronavirus infection rates in the world after a record surge in November.

Why was he arrested?

Any public gathering of more than six people is currently banned under Slovakia's anti-COVID rules. It was initially unclear whether Fico would face any charges.

Police said they would provide further details about the arrest on Friday.

The protest went ahead anyway, with a procession of honking cars making their way through the capital, Bratislava. Fico said the rally complied with restrictions because it was mainly made up of cars.

"I was detained and accused of incitement. It is absurd. This is the end of democracy. I did not incite anything," Fico told reporters after he was released.

Why were they protesting?

Fico's Smer-SD party had announced the rally on Tuesday, saying it was to protest President Zuzana Caputova's refusal to allow a referendum on a snap election.

Smer-SD demanded the vote because of the government's handling of the pandemic after Slovakia's Constitutional Court ruled that it went against the constitution.

Fico described the protest as a way to "express our disagreement with the policy of the government and its spokeswoman, President Caputova, who has buried democracy."

Lef-wing populist Fico has strongly criticized the government's response to the pandemic, and he has opposed vaccination.

Slovakia has been one of the worst-hit EU member states, with a surge that filled hospitals and forced it to revert back to lockdown measures.

There have been more than 794,000 infections and 15,730 deaths in the country of 5.5 million.

Fico was forced to quit as prime minister in 2018 after the killing of an investigative reporter. The murder revealed a high level of corruption, prompting a wave of anti-government sentiment.

The journalist, Jan Kuciak, had been investigating secretive links between businessmen, politicians, and other senior officials before he was killed.

rc/fb (AFP, dpa, AP)