Large protests erupted Thursday afternoon in Bratislava, Slovakia, against a series of amendments to the law on non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which would make the activity of civil society organizations in the country more challenging.

While introducing the concept of “foreign supported” organizations for NGOs receiving foreign funding larger than five thousand euros, if approved, the new legal provisions would require organizations engaged in any form of political outreach to register their activities in a database. Furthermore, associations with budgets exceeding fifty thousand euros will have to disclose an annual report detailing a list with the identities of donors, the fundings of which exceed five thousand euros. These amendments are expected to be voted on next week.

The amendments have been criticized by the European Commission, which stated that it would initiate a punitive infringement procedure if the amendments were to be approved.

Prime Minister Robert Fico expressed his intention of challenging the civic space since he had his political victory in 2023. Accusations against foreign-funded organizations which intended to destabilize the country were brought forward by the Prime Minister in 2018, when an investigative journalist was killed and large protests sparked in the country. The main opposition leader, Michal Šimečka, of the party Progresívne Slovensko, labelled the new changes as an “anti civil society” bill.

The UN recently criticized the erosion of fundamental freedoms in Slovakia. Similar attempts at challenging NGOs were made in Georgia, which were discouraged earlier this year by human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch, as it argued these laws could “spell the end of Georgia’s independent civil society”. The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in 2020, in a similar attempt in Hungary that these sorts of provisions constituted for discrimination on organizations which received foreign funding, something which was ruled to be contrary to EU law.