The Slovak parliament has approved a set of legislative measures introducing restrictions on protests and gatherings, strengthening security for high public officials and introducing lifetime pensions for some of them, following the assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Fico last month.

The bill was approved in a shortened legislative process amid criticism from the opposition and NGOs. Some 1,000 protesters marched through Bratislava earlier this month in a demonstration against the bill.

Although ruling coalition legislators softened the bill they also vowed to introduce more measures in the autumn. The government has argued that the assassination attempt on Fico showed that protests called by the opposition had got out of hand and were causing polarisation and radicalisation.

“Rather than addressing any genuine safety concerns, this bill aims to expand the power of the authorities to restrict or even ban peaceful assemblies and would create a significant chilling effect on human rights,” Rado Sloboda, director of Amnesty International Slovakia, told Czech and Slovak media.

Sloboda acknowledged that “the government made changes to the bill following the widespread criticism from us and other organisations. However, these are insufficient and do not change the drastic interference with human rights.”

Some of the measures include banning demonstrations around the seat of the parliament, around the building where the president works and lives, and around the buildings used by politicians and public officials against whom the protests are called. Municipalities could also ban demonstrations if they deem there is a risk of a clash between protesters and rival groups. The measures also raise fines for transgressing demonstration rules.

Opposition legislator Maria Kolikova from the neoliberal SaS told the Slovak public broadcaster RTVS that “gatherings could be banned now just because there are two gatherings which want to highlight a publicly debated theme”.          

Under the bill, heads of political parties who are members of the parliament would be entitled to state bodyguards and lifetime pensions would be introduced for long-term cabinet and parliament heads, which would almost certainly apply to populist Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was shot multiple times by a would-be assassin standing in the crowd of supporters Fico was greeting in mid-May. Fico is now making a recovery under home medical care at his apartment in Bratislava, which is guarded by police.

His left-right cabinet has faced regular demonstrations since the end of last year over the sweeping staff changes it introduced in the police, its dismantling of the Special Prosecutor Office overseeing high-profile corruption cases, and more recently the way it is restructuring RTVS and its attempts to introduce a foreign agent bill to stifle NGOs.

Fico’s cabinet has also re-oriented Slovak foreign policy from one of the staunchest military backers of Ukraine to a Kremlin-pleasing one, calling for peace talks with Russia.

If new President Peter Pellegrini signs in the legislation it could become valid as early as mid-July.