One of the attendees, David Selyem, was wearing an “I heart NATO” T-shirt wrapped around his stocky frame and waving a large blue and yellow flag. An older woman approached and asked to take his picture. “Ukraine,” she said with a grin and a double thumbs-up. Selyem, who previously played professional poker, delivered aid in Ukraine, and has now devoted himself to the widespread protests against Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.

The Slovak National Uprising Square in central Bratislava is no stranger to upheaval. Evidence of the city’s turbulent history surrounds the square and its pastel-colored buildings. Walk a few blocks away and you’ll find a street corner sometimes covered in wreaths honoring three people killed there during the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. The square itself was a focal point for the Velvet Revolution, which brought down a Soviet-backed communist regime in Czechoslovakia. When I visited in August, several hundred people had gathered to commemorate the anniversary of the invasion—and voice their anger about their country’s current direction.

The Slovak National Uprising Square in central Bratislava is no stranger to upheaval. Evidence of the city’s turbulent history surrounds the square and its pastel-colored buildings. Walk a few blocks away and you’ll find a street corner sometimes covered in wreaths honoring three people killed there during the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. The square itself was a focal point for the Velvet Revolution, which brought down a Soviet-backed communist regime in Czechoslovakia. When I visited in August, several hundred people had gathered to commemorate the anniversary of the invasion—and voice their anger about their country’s current direction.

One of the attendees, David Selyem, was wearing an “I heart NATO” T-shirt wrapped around his stocky frame and waving a large blue and yellow flag. An older woman approached and asked to take his picture. “Ukraine,” she said with a grin and a double thumbs-up.