'Slovakia' Party Calling for Joint Opposition Protests on 17 November

Bratislava, 30 October (TASR) - The 'Slovakia' party has called for joint opposition protests to be organised in several towns and cities across Slovakia on 17 November, party leader Igor Matovic told a news conference on Thursday. According to Matovic, Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), the Christian Democrats (KDH) and the extra-parliamentary 'Democrats' have joined the initiative. However, Progressive Slovakia (PS) hasn't reacted to the call and has started to organise its own protests close to where the other opposition parties plan to gather. "We don't think that this is the way to go, it will look very, very bad, and we'd like to ask Progressive Slovakia to take a step back regarding this matter," said Matovic, adding that public unity among the opposition parties would give people hope. Opposition parties have declared before now that they plan to mark the events of 17 November 1989 [the Velvet Revolution - ed.note] with various events. ko/df