Politics is not filth, it concerns all of us

This text was read, in its original Slovak version, to the crowd in Bratislava's SNP Square during the For a Decent Slovakia protest on March 16. It is authored by people from the Nova Cvernovka organisation.

Dear misters Fico, Bugár, Danko, Kováčik, Gašpar, Kaliňák, and others,

You are the reason why we stand here today. You have disappointed us. You have betrayed us.

You insist that you mean well. That we will not make it without you. That you would serve as the dam against extremism.

And all the while you steal our taxes behind our backs.

You assault the weak among us, and insult journalists.

It was under your government that a young journalist and a young archaeologist were murdered.

It was under your government that the extremists saw their support rise.

Under your government we have lost our trust in this state.

We are nothing to you. Stupid. Parasites. Toilet spiders. Dirty anti-Slovak prostitutes. You have betrayed us.

We are watching your reshuffles and your grins during live broadcasts. You have changed the characters, but the drama remains the same.

You no longer represent us. You make us laugh and you make us cry.

We are ashamed of you in front of the world, and in front of ourselves.

Keep your properties, your apartments and haciendas, your expensive watches, your cars with dark windows, and never, never come back again. Take your strawmen, your VAT men with you, your world of godfathers where you investigate yourselves and are governed by the creed "Win the election and you can do anything"!

Leave. Leave now!

Another reason why we stand here is because of all of you who aspire for a mandate in the next free elections. You will sit in the ministerial chairs and you will take your seats in parliament. There is just one thing we want to tell you.

We see you! And ours is not a look full of trust. You need to win that. Dear members of the opposition and non-parliamentary parties, we will control you and we will criticise you. Rest assured that we will stand here in these squares and hold you accountable for every misstep. We require honesty, professionalism, diligence, decency, and respect for the facts from you. Expect no less from us.

We demand that you give the highest priority to the key problems in the police, the judiciary, education, health care, the environment and in the neglected regions where allegedly "nothing is there". You must offer continuous solutions, not just for one election term.

You need to work for us, for this country.

You need to work on winning back our trust and keeping it.

The third reason why we stand here, is us, the citizens of the Slovak Republic, all the honest police officers, honest prosecutors, judges, and public officials. Let's embrace the courage that it takes to talk about all the law violations that have been going on here all these years. Your voice has never been as important as it is today!

This is also the time when we must encourage all decent people to enter politics and change it. There is no "us and them", it is only "us", and what we expect from politicians we must also demand from ourselves. Politics is not filth, it concerns all of us!

Therefore let us not give up, and let us remember!

We will hit the streets every time someone attempts to capture Slovakia again.

Who falls asleep in democracy, wakes up in totalitarianism.

Authors: Diana Klepoch Majdáková, Boris Belan, Tomáš Klepoch, Ľubica Segečová, Zuzana Suchová, Viliam Csino, Boris Meluš

Author: Nová Cvernovka