Thousands rallied in the capital and other major cities in Slovakia on Tuesday to denounce a plan by the new government of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico to amend the country’s penal code. The changes proposed by the coalition government include a proposal to abolish the special prosecutors' office, which handles serious crimes such as graft, organized crime and extremism, by mid-January, and return those prosecutions to regional offices, which haven't dealt with such crimes for 20 years. The noisy but peaceful crowd in Bratislava gathered in front of the government office in a rally organized by several opposition parties, including Progressive Slovakia, the Christian Democrats and Freedom and Solidarity.