Thousands protest in Bratislava over sacking of national theatre and gallery heads
Slovakia's hard-right Culture Minister Martina Šimkovičová dismissed the directors of the Slovak National Theatre and Slovak National Gallery last week.
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00:00Slovakia's National Theatre is not usually a site for demonstrations.
00:09But thousands gathered in front of the building in Bratislava
00:12to protest the sacking of its director, Matej Driliška,
00:16and the head of the Slovak National Gallery, Aleksandra Kusa,
00:19by the country's culture ministry,
00:21in what some in the country see as a political purge.
00:25Organisers say around 9,000 people attended the rally.
00:31The position of Kusa and her peers has been fragile
00:35since former TV anchor Martina Simkomikova
00:38was appointed culture minister last October
00:41by Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico.
00:47Fico recently made his first public appearance
00:50since surviving an assassination attempt on 15th May.