The organisers of the Gorilla Protest announced on Thursday, March 8, that their first series of country-wide civic gatherings will take place on the day of the general election, Saturday March 10, at noon.
According to organisers Lucia Gallová and Tibor Moravčík, smaller debating groups should emerge to seek consensual findings on current social issues. Although these conclusions are not expected to have a binding character, the organisers believe that this may change after more people join the events, something which should take place four times a year. Saturday's debates should focus on the Gorilla scandal, ACTA and the role of direct democracy. The organisers said that it will be up to the people in individual debate groups (which will each consist of five to eight people) to select the topic for discussion, the TASR newswire reported.
Referring to the need to make the Gorilla Protest less of a mob, Moravčík said: "A crowd is an easy subject to manipulate and its IQ is usually very low, but the [total] IQ of an organised group of people represents several thousand IQ points." He added that the gatherings may gain legitimacy if they are attended by at least 20 percent of voters. They will take place in Bratislava, Banská Bystrica, Poprad and Trnava, while it is also possible that debates will take place in Trenčín, Ružomberok and other towns, the organisers said.
On Thursday, there was another protest, but only a few people, mostly organisers and a group of journalists, turned up for what was dubbed the "Anti-Gorilla Protest" in Bratislava, another event linked to the Gorilla file. Marek Kravjar, who was behind the event, blamed the snowy weather for the low turnout. Kravjar was among the original group of Gorilla Protest organisers, but left the team over what he said was its reluctance to deal with the aggressive behaviour of some protesters.
The protest on Thursday took place in front of parliament, so that demonstrators could voice their requirements to politicians leaving for pre-election TV discussion shows in the evening. Their requirements are similar to those of the original protests.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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