Slovenia’s Marathon Anti-Govt Protests Enter 23rd Week

Ahead of the 23rd consecutive anti-government protest due on Friday evening in Slovenia, Jasa Jenull, one of the participants, said "the astonishing fact" about the protests was that Slovenians had still not given up their demand for Prime Minister Janez Jansa to quit.

The protests started in mid-March, when the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with the return to power of the right-wing politician who critics accuse of usurping power and of leading the country towards Hungarian-style "Orbanization" - referencing the authoritarian rule Hungarian PM Viktor Orban.

"Never before in the history of Slovenia have so many people been on the streets for such a long time, self-organized, without even being paid for a sandwich or renting a bus [to come to the protest]," Jenull told BIRN.

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Several thousand people join the protests held every Friday, and Jenull says they try to keep "a safe distance", to protect each other from coronavirus infection.

The protests started during the lockdown, with people displaying banners on balconies and in windows, after some 20 NGOs called on citizens to protest against the formation of the new government. At the end of April, the protesters came down from their balconies and mounted bicycles instead.

Jenull says the protests are now mixed - with some people riding bicycles and some walking. While their main demand is a change of government and new elections, the protests also have a new "topic" every Friday, when they focus on other current big problems in the country.

"New things happen every week, new scandals, new examples that show how they [the government] try to...