BRATISLAVA, October 12, (WEBNOVINY) — Approximately three thousand people from all over Slovakia gathered in protest against the planned government’s austerity measures at the Namestie Slobody square in the country’s capital on Tuesday. Vice-President of the Trade Unions Confederation Vladimir Mojs stated in his address that today, citizens are becoming victims of the government’s contempt and it is therefore important that people in the protest protect their personal and in particular social rights. The noisy crowd of protesters then walked to the building of the Slovak Parliament in order to meet with Speaker of Parliament Richard Sulik.
The SaS chairman and speaker of parliament was waiting for the gathering outside the building. He asked the unionists where they were when the so-called „bulletin-board tender“ was taking place and the state was loosing millions of euros in murky business deals. The situation at the gathering escalated, as members of the SaS deputy faction put up its own banner close to the unionist stating “Where were you, unionists, when social “drunkards were plundering Slovakia? We have to cut spending because you were ‚mysteriously‘ silent for four years. About a dozen of people walked up to them and verbally attacked them. The rest of the crowd booed and shouted “Shame!”. The police escorted the SaS deputies back to the building.
The unionists gave their statement to Richard Sulik, in which they voiced their objections to the government’s measures. The Trade Unions Confederation, which signed an agreement on strategic cooperation with the previous strongest governing coalition party SMER-SD in 2006 and 2010, announced last week that they would organize a protest rally against the government’s planned measures regarding taxes and the social system in front of the building of the Slovak Parliament on October 12. President of trade union organization OZ KOVO Emil Machyna said that individual trade unions would arrange protest actions in regions. The trade unionists decided to hold protest actions as they are unhappy that the Cabinet did not accept their reservations about tax laws and the changes in social insurance.
The trade unionists expressed their disapproval with increasing the value-added tax (VAT) rate as well as increasing the excise taxes except the tax on tobacco at a meeting of the representatives of the government and employers last week. KOZ Vice President Vladimir Mojs stated that the reason behind the trade unions’ discontent with the prepared changes in taxation of income and consumption was mainly the negative impact these measures would have on the lowest-income groups of citizens. The trade unionists expect that increasing the base rate of VAT by one percentage point to twenty percent will raise prices for goods and services. OZ KOVO President underscored that it was necessary to consolidate public finances but with a different burden imposed on citizens and businesses.
SITA