City police spokeswoman Irena Seifert said police officers would report the case to the administration. According to Mayor Zdeněk Hřiba (Pirates), the city cannot do anything about it.

“The Office has approved the markets as a cultural event, and therefore they act according to the regime of cultural events, which are not limited in this scope,” Bidlo said on Monday. He added that, according to the organizers, drinks and groceries are in the mode of takeaway and the staff is using signs to operate that they do not consume on the spot.

Petr Hejma, the mayor of the city district, already informed about the fact that the stallholders in Prague 1 continue to function despite the government ban. “I fully understand the seriousness of the situation, I myself comply with all anti-pandemic measures and I ask all citizens to do the same. However, I consider the ban on Christmas markets to be a huge nonsense, as farmers’ markets, for example, can continue to operate and we now have a lot of people in shopping malls who have the opportunity to shop here, ”Hejma wrote on Facebook.

According to the procedure, the market organizers consulted with police officers, police officers, the city district and the municipality. Bidlo added that there are charity stalls at the event, which sell the products of sheltered workshops of people with physical or mental disabilities.

A spokeswoman for the city police said the police were dealing with the violation of the crisis law on notification. “The police will report the illegal sale on Wenceslas Square to the administrative body. However, in connection with this activity, we did not receive any notification from the public or on the emergency number 156, “she said.

Mayor Hřib said on Monday that the city can influence sales only through special decrees, the so-called market regulations. It determines where and what can be sold in public places in Prague. According to this decree, only the lower part of the square is explicitly mentioned as a place for Christmas markets. According to the mayor, the change in the decree is then a month.

“Even in a state of emergency, the mayor does not have the power to suspend the market regulations or adjust them more quickly,” he said. He added that how the measures announced by the government reacted is primarily the responsibility of the operators. “Some operators are responding by transferring to a cultural event, others have decided not to go for it,” he said.

The government has banned Christmas markets from 6pm on Friday. Representatives of the city criticized this, according to them, it does not make sense to keep the shopping center open, for example, but the sale of Christmas goods in outdoor stalls was made impossible.