Robert Fico’s pleas for cheap Russian gas bring Slovaks onto the street

OLD-TIMERS IN Bratislava still call Freedom Square “Gottko”, harking back to Soviet times when it was named after Klement Gottwald, a communist leader of Czechoslovakia. On February 7th demonstrators packed it from end to end, protesting at the current Slovak government’s overtures towards Russia. In total some 100,000 people turned out in rallies across the country. The flags of NATO and the European Union waved; demonstrators chanted “Slovakia is Europe” and called on Robert Fico, the prime minister, to resign. In Bratislava one of the heads of Peace to Ukraine, the main group organising the rally, accused Mr Fico of trying to “turn Slovakia into a Russian province”.