On this day in 2004, the first store was looted in a series of riots and protests by unemployed people in Slovakia. Although the protests were brutally suppressed by police, the government subsequently increased activation benefits by 50%.

The protests were in response to welfare cuts by the Slovakian government. Many Roma people participated in the protests. At the time, 51% of Roma women and 72% of Roma men were unemployed, a trend which can be traced back to liberalization policies after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In February 2004, unemployed workers all over Slovakia received official notices from the government informing them of steep cuts to welfare benefits, and demonstrations broke out in the eastern parts of the country.

The reaction was a mix of peaceful demonstrations and outright rioting. Signs from protests read "We want work, not food stamps" and "We've had enough of capitalism", and were attended by some of the white ethnic majority.

In the largest police and military operation since 1989, over 2,000 troops were mobilized and sent to the affected regions. On February 23rd, in Trebišov (southeastern Slovakia), police attacked a Roma demonstration with teargas and, in the freezing February cold, water cannons.

Early the next morning, around 240 policemen attacked a settlement the protesters were suspected to live in by about 80 people in the historical town of Levoča.

Although the protests failed to develop into a more substantive political movement, they had a lasting impact. Soon afterward, the government made important concessions, increasing activation benefits by 50%, introducing scholarships and various subsidies for pupils and students from poor families, and increasing funding for placement opportunities for the unemployed.