BRATISLAVA (Reuters) – Police in Slovakia said on Saturday they detained 60 people at an anti-immigration march in the capital Bratislava after protesters damaged police cars and attacked spectators at a cycling race.
The march was organised on Facebook against a proposal from Brussels for compulsory national quotas as a way to tackle a growing influx of migrants to the European Union.
Slovakia and several other EU members, including France, Hungary and Poland, oppose the plan under which 40,000 refugees currently in Italy and Greece would be resettled around the European Union.
The quota for Slovakia, which has a population of 5.5 million and a low immigration rate, would come to 785 people, in a one-off allocation over a period of two years.
Saturday’s protest was called under the slogan: “Stop Islamisation of Europe; Together Against dictate of Brussels; Europe for Europeans!”
Slovak media put the numbers of protesters from several hundred to several thousand.
The protest comes ahead of a European Union summit next week where the surge in immigration will be discussed.
Source: Reuters