Fico under fire over failing to help Slovaks attacked in Serbia

[ad_1] Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico faces warmth from the opposition after he didn’t bat a watch when a bunch of Slovaks dwelling in Serbia was assaulted.

The incident passed off this month within the northern metropolis of Bački Petrovac, house to Serbia’s largest Slovak minority, the place a photograph exhibition documenting months of anti-government protests was vandalized. The violence later escalated into bodily assaults towards the organizers by supporters of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić. The exhibition was organized as a part of the Slovak Nationwide Competition.

Michal Šimečka, chief of the opposition liberal occasion Progressive Slovakia (PS), made a visit to Bački Petrovac and accused the Fico authorities of failing to guard minority rights of their fellow countrymen.

“The Slovaks in Serbia really feel utterly deserted, left on the mercy of native hooligans and thugs. Nobody helps them, nobody from our authorities has stood up for them, summoned the Serbian ambassador, nothing,” fumed Šimečka in a submit on Fb. He referred to as on to Fico and the overseas minister Juraj Blanár to “act instantly.”

Fico in a press convention on Friday slammed Šimečka for interfering in Serbia’s inside political issues and accused the opposition of making an attempt to stage comparable protests in Slovakia.

“An inside matter, which is only a sovereign situation of Serbia, has develop into an ideal alternative for our opposition politicians to, on one hand, assist the Serbian opposition and, on the identical time, attempt to import this “Maidanization” we're already seeing in Serbia into Slovakia,” Fico stated.

The Slovak chief additionally stated he had no data of minority rights being violated in Serbia and completed by attacking journalists on the press convention who he stated hate sovereign governments like these in Serbia or Slovakia.

The anti-government protests in Serbia began final November after a railway station awning collapsed in Novi Unhappy, killing 16 individuals, and developed into the biggest protest motion in fashionable Serbian historical past.