Police detained seven anti-government demonstrators in Ljubljana on Friday evening and fined them for disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.

The incident occurred around 8 pm when a number of demonstrators attempted to knock down the fence in front of the parliament building in defiance of police orders to stop.

The police put the number of demonstrators at 5,000, while non-governmental organisations and groups demanding the government’s resignation said there were twice that many.

Prime Minister Janez Jansa has said several times that protest rallies against his government are organised by extremist leftist and Antifa groups, tacitly supported by the left-wing parliamentary parties, to destabilise his coalition government. He said that banners, such as those calling for “Death to Jansism”, represent indirect death threats.

The demonstrators, organised through social networks, accuse the government of right-wing extremism, dissemination of hate speech, attacks on freedom of the press, and undermining environmental and democratic standards.

They also criticise the government for non-transparent procurement of medical equipment through an intermediary as part of efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus outbreak, which the government dismissed as unfounded and politically motivated sloganeering.