Having grown up in Banská Bystrica in totalitarian Czechoslovakia, I vividly remember standing in the city’s historic square a few days after 17 November 1989, the start of the Velvet Revolution, holding candles in solidarity with the students protesting in Prague. Never would I have imagined that 35 years later, I would be speaking at a rally in the same square, this time urging the preservation of democracy.
Back then, when I was a young social anthropology academic at our local university, activism was far from my mind. But everything changed for me in 2013 when Marian Kotleba, leader of the neo-Nazi People’s Party Our Slovakia, was elected as regional governor. The shock was enormous. No one I knew had believed that such an outcome was possible, yet it happened. Realising the dangers this posed, many like-minded individuals knew we couldn’t stand by idly.
On the night after the election, a group of us gathered on the steps of the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising, a site symbolising resistance against Nazi Germany and its Slovak puppet state. Echoing the past, we lit candles, shed tears, sang songs and embraced. That moment marked the beginning of our discussion of how to promote democratic values actively. Our goal was not to oppose a democratically elected candidate but to cultivate democratic awareness throughout the region and Slovakia. Not to talk but to do.
