Banners reading “Fico ic do hotela Ric” (a phrase in local dialect mocking the prime minister, roughly telling him to go to hell) were placed on both sides of a bridge in Humenné earlier this week. (source: Korzár)
Protest banners criticising Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, have appeared on bridges in several eastern Slovak towns in recent weeks, reflecting mounting public frustration with the government’s political direction.
On Thursday afternoon, two banners – each around 10 metres long – were seen attached to a bridge in the town of Humenné, according to the Korzár daily. The banners, reading “Fico ic do hotela Ric” (a phrase in local dialect mocking the prime minister, roughly telling him to go to hell), were placed on both sides of the bridge, which is widely visible to pedestrians and vehicles heading to nearby towns.
No group has claimed responsibility for the banners so far. But similar acts of dissent have been recorded elsewhere, particularly in the city of Košice. There, protesters recently displayed a green banner styled like a motorway sign pointing to an exit from the EU and towards Fico’s political party, Smer. Underneath the party’s name and logo, a blood-stained symbol communism – a hammer and sickle – were included, a nod to Fico's 1980s membership of the Czechoslovak Communist Party and the country's current authoritarian drift.
A banner spotted recently in Košice. (source: Košický odboj)
Another banner appeared in mid May on a major road junction in Košice. It featured Fico’s portrait next to the word "traitor" and was hung by a group calling itself the Košice Resistance (Košický odboj, or K.O.), a name that references the anti-fascist Slovak resistance movement from the Second World War.
In a statement sent to a regional newspaper, the group accused the government of eroding democratic norms and aligning Slovakia with authoritarian regimes: “Since the election, our government has been dragging us away from the democratic world and towards Russian-style totalitarianism. Even though they deny it, their actions tell a different story.”
The statement added that the government is “plundering the country” and “leading it into unfreedom and decline.” It ended with a call to action: “We must not allow this. Slovakia belongs in Europe – not only geographically, but also in terms of its values.”
A banner hung from a bridge at the entrance to the KVP housing estate, one of the largest residential areas in the city of Košice, in May 2025. (source: Korzár)
The protest came just days after Prime Minister Fico travelled to Moscow to meet Russia's President Vladimir Putin, despite the brutal, years-long war that Putin has been waging on Slovakia's neighbour. The visit, which coincided with celebrations to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe, was attended by the leaders of China, Venezuela, Cuba, Zimbabwe and Brazil. Fico was the only EU leader to attend.
