Organisers of the first student protest, Karolína Farská and Dávid Straka. (source: SME)
The third anti-corruption march organised by secondary school and university students, scheduled for September 25, was supported by the representatives of teachers and scientists.
“We are glad to connect people with various preferences,” said Karolína Farská, one of the organisers, as quoted by the SITA newswire. “The aim is the same, though: to change the current state of corruption in Slovakia.”
Slovakia is among countries with the lowest financial support for science. This may change by using EU funds, according to Imrich Barák, member of the “Science Wants to Live” initiative and scientist of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
“But you know what happened: millions of euros were redistributed among companies that don’t deal with science and research and have only few employees,” Barák said, as quoted by SITA, referring to the recent scandal at the Education Ministry. “Scientists who actually do the research didn’t have access to the money.”
The march was meanwhile supported by the Initiative of Slovak Teachers (ISU).
“We believe that if this government had the will and effort, the systems for redistributing public sources might have been set up to diminish the risk of corruption, cronyism and wastage from the very beginning,” said Vladimír Crmoman of ISU, as quoted by SITA.
The only solution to the current state is similar initiatives organised by students, he added.
The march will start on September 25 at 17:00 in Bratislava on Hviezdoslavovo Square. The students will also collect signatures under a petition asking for the dismissal of Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák (Smer) and Police Corps President Tibor Gašpar, along with the resignation of Special Prosecutor Dušan Kováčik. They are also calling for the proper investigation of corruption scandals like Gorilla and Bašternák.
The organisers have managed to collect about 70,000 signatures.
At the same time, a meeting will take place in front of the Slovak Embassy in Prague.
