Slovakia’s "chalk revolution" intensifies as students challenge Prime Minister

A wave of student-led protests sweeping across Slovakia — now dubbed the “Chalk Revolution” — has covered pavements in cities nationwide with anti-government slogans and placed Prime Minister Robert Fico under mounting public pressure.

The movement is expected to reach its height on November 17, the anniversary of the student-driven 1989 Velvet Revolution that helped topple communist rule in former Czechoslovakia, Euractiv reports.

The protest wave began a week earlier, after Fico announced an unexpected visit to a high school in the eastern city of Poprad to deliver a lecture on geopolitics. The last-minute appearance sparked tension among students, prompting a 19-year-old known as “Muro” to chalk critical messages about Fico on the pavement outside. The school principal called the police, and the student was taken in for questioning. Fico then canceled the lecture, claiming the European Commission was preparing infringement proceedings over Slovakia’s anti-LGBTI amendment — a claim immediately questioned by the Commission’s spokesperson.

The incident triggered nationwide solidarity as students across Slovakia replicated Muro’s chalk slogans. A social-media call to action — “The November Chalk Wave – Solidarity with Muro” — quickly went viral.

The symbolism of the movement has been amplified by the government’s decision to abolish November 17 as a national holiday as part of its consolidation package. Nonetheless, most universities — along with dozens of companies and institutions — are giving people the day off, with commemorations and rallies planned across the country.

Members of Fico’s Smer-SD party insisted that Muro was merely a “victim” of pro-European opposition narratives, a claim he rejected, saying he is unaffiliated with any political party.

Tensions escalated on November 14, when Fico returned to Poprad to deliver the postponed lecture. He was greeted by a room full of students dressed mostly in black. Annoyed, Fico remarked: “Are you heading to a funeral?”

The atmosphere deteriorated further when Fico criticized EU aid to Ukraine, alleging that the bloc intended to allocate €140 billion to “continue the war.” In response, students jingled their keys — a symbolic gesture borrowed directly from the Velvet Revolution.

“If you’re such heroes in your black T-shirts and so desperately for this war, then go. Go on, jingle like in November. Stand up and go. Go fight in Ukraine!”

Roughly 30 students rose from their seats and walked out, one carrying a Ukrainian flag.

“It was very intense. It was unpleasant. He was arrogant,” said Sarah, a student who witnessed the confrontation, in remarks to Slovak media. The walkout sparked an outpouring of public support, including a statement from the Slovak Chamber of Teachers, which said it “repeatedly objects to the prime minister’s aggressive and demeaning remarks about young people who care about the state of their country.”

Fico later wrote on social media: “When they had the opportunity to discuss, they left,” though he welcomed that some students eventually returned for further dialogue.

The episode caps a difficult week for Fico’s government, already facing political turbulence following revelations tying his adviser Miroslav Lajčák to Jeffrey Epstein and the dismissal of Deputy Prime Minister Peter Kmec over a subsidies scandal.

By Vafa Guliyeva