Slovak President Peter Pellegrini will now have to respond to the petition and consider holding a referendum

Activists in Slovakia have gathered nearly 400,000 signatures demanding the lifting of EU sanctions against Russia. The country's president, Peter Pellegrini, will now have to respond to the petition and consider holding a referendum within a month.

Members of the Slovak Revival Movement (SHO) and the national party DOMOV, who are behind the petition, have submitted the signatures to the office of the president. They want the government to pose the following question to its citizens: "Do you agree that... sanctions against the Russian Federation harm Slovak citizens, tradesmen and entrepreneurs?"

Commenting on the initiative that was launched late last year and has surpassed the 350,000 threshold for consideration, Pellegrini's office promised to "handle petition sheets strictly in accordance with the law."

SHO leader Robert Svec said he expects the president not to ignore the petition and to call for a referendum, citing Pellegrini's own presumed skepticism regarding anti-Russian sanctions.

In late March, the activists held a conference called 'For Slovakia Without Sanctions,' that was attended by a number of politicians and economists.

Speaking at the time, DOMOV leader Pavol Slota claimed that Slovakia's future depends on whether the sanctions against Moscow will be lifted or not.

"It is about our whole nation, all Slovak citizens," he stated.

Economist Peter Stanek, in turn, said that "there are dozens of studies that clearly show that sanctions have never worked," affecting instead "those who imposed them."

Slovakia implemented the sweeping EU sanctions imposed on Russia following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. Robert Fico, who became prime minister in 2023, has maintained that the punitive measures "are not working," and doing more harm to member states than Moscow.