How a Reporter’s Murder Forced Out Slovakia’s Premier
A demonstration against corruption and to pay tribute to murdered Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova in Bratislava, Slovakia, on March 9.
Photographer: Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images
Protesters thronging eastern Europe’s capitals have become a common sight, with demonstrators denouncing what they see as overly cozy relations with Russia, attacks on independent courts, crooked state contracts and overdone austerity. They usually have little effect, as their governments endure the outrage to cling to power. In Slovakia, however, the biggest marches since the 1989 fall of communism ended the rule of three-time Prime Minister Robert Fico.
The execution-style murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, who was reporting on state corruption, has fueled the protest movement. Kuciak, 27, was found shot dead along with his fiancee in their home on Feb. 25, and law enforcement says his work could be the motive for the double murder. Until his slaying, protests in Slovakia -- like similar rallies in the last year in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic -- had failed to damage the government. This time, the tens of thousands of people thronging Slovakia’s streets both claimed scalps from Fico’s administration and eventually forced the veteran leader himself to resign.