About 3,000 opponents of anti-epidemic measures gathered in Prague
Updates: 11/28/2021 5:36 PM
Released: 28.11.2021, 14:33
Prague – Despite the unfavorable weather, hundreds of government opponents and measures against the Covid-19 pandemic gathered on Prague’s Letna Plain today. It was convened by the Open Czechia – Chcípl PES movement in cooperation with a number of other parties, movements and initiatives with a similar focus. According to police estimates, there were about 2,500 to 3,000 people at the event. Dozens of police officers supervised the event on the spot, and according to police spokesman Jan Daňek, no major problems arose. The meeting ended before 5 p.m. The demonstration, which the movement organized on November 1 in the Old Town Square, is estimated by the police at that time about 10,000 people.
According to a ČTK correspondent, people came to the site equipped with Czech flags. There were stands of various parties and initiatives, such as the Tricolors, the Free or the Manifesto movement. There was also a beer stall on the site, which formed a line of tens of meters, although according to government measures, alcohol is not allowed to be drunk in public from 6 pm on Friday. None of the participants also had a veil or respirator.
According to Daňek, most people were in Letná after the start of the meeting between 13:00 and 14:00, later in the afternoon the number was rather decreasing. A spokesman for the Czech News Agency said that he did not yet have precise information on how many police officers had dealt with cases in connection with violations of anti-epidemic measures or other transgressions, but according to him these were probably cases. He added that no major problems had occurred. At the end of the program, the participants peacefully parted ways.
The event was scheduled to begin at 1 p.m., but was launched a little later because more people were still arriving at the scheduled time. After the opening at about 1.30 pm, representatives of the Open Czechia – Chcípl PES movement and then speakers who do not agree with the current way of fighting the epidemic appeared on the stage. According to them, the most important thing is human freedom, which the state unacceptably restricts under the pretext of fighting the disease, so they spoke out against vaccination or government restrictions. People in response chanted slogans like “Freedom!” or “I’ve had enough!”
In addition to flags, people also had a number of signs and banners with slogans such as “Defend your children”, “Stalls inside yes, outside no? Dementia!”, “Release ivermectin”, “Vaccine is business”, “I’m not a guinea pig”, “My body is my choice”, “Let’s defend the children from the will of the state”, “Vaccinate? Over your corpses!”, “New elections” or “From Hippocrates to Mengele”.
Among the speakers were paramedics, lawyers and representatives of the movements involved. “What is happening now is no longer about whether you are vaccinated or unvaccinated. This has long been about how they restrict our lives, break the law and drive us back to the totalitarian regime we have experienced before, “The chairwoman of the Tricolor, Zuzana Majerová Zahradníková, said. The chairman of the Manifesto movement, David Tesař, and the chairwoman of the Free Bloc, Jana Volfová, also spoke about totalitarianism and the Orwellian state.
Singer Daniel Landa, former deputy Lubomír Volný, Libor Vondráček from Svobodné, chairman of the Workers’ Party of Social Justice Tomáš Vandas, chairman of the National Democracy Adam B. Bartoš, vice-chairman of the DOST Event Michal Semín and many other speakers also spoke at the event. After 16:00, the police warned the participants that they were observing anti-epidemic measures, such as spacing or covered airways. The protesters laughed at that.
The Chcípl PES initiative was created as a protest against measures restricting the operation of restaurants. As the political movement Open Czechia – Chcípl PES, the initiative then ran in the parliamentary elections, in which it won 0.4 percent of the vote. After the election, dozens of small groups and parties began to take part in its events, sharing a critical view of the government’s actions.
Due to the escalating epidemic, the resigned government announced a new situation from midnight to Friday for 30 days, which was followed by a new widespread anti-epidemic measure. He banned Christmas markets, restaurants, bars or clubs must be closed between 22:00 and 05:00, and a maximum of 1,000 people can go to cultural, sports or educational events.
The increase in new cases of coronavirus in the new week has exceeded 20,000 people three times and it is clear that this week will be the most newly confirmed cases of covidu-19 since the beginning of the epidemic in the Czech Republic last March.