Tens of thousands of people demonstrated against the government in Prague, demanding its resignation
Prague/Brno – The second anti-government demonstration of the group Czech Republic in 1st place took place in Prague today. According to the police, “low tens of thousands” of participants arrived. The organizers are demanding the resignation of the five-member cabinet and a reversal of the country’s political direction. They stated that on October 10 they will go to President Miloš Zeman, who they will ask to dismiss Fialo’s government and announce early elections. They are calling another protest on Wenceslas Square for October 28. According to Deputy Prime Minister Víto Rakušan (STAN), fear is understandable in uncertain times, but he condemned the lies and asked people not to be taken advantage of by manipulators offering unrealistic solutions.
“We want to turn the political direction in our country by 180 degrees. We want to achieve this change in a non-violent way,” said organizer Jiří Havel. According to the second of the organizers, Ladislav Vrábel, the government should resign, new elections should be called and “pro-national experts” should take over the management of the country. The dean of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Economics in Prague, Miroslav Ševčík, and the former head of the Agrarian Chamber, Zdeněk Jandejsek, spoke at the event, which lasted approximately 3.5 hours. SPD MP Jaroslav Foldyna, Communist leader Kateřina Konečná and Trikolora leader Zuzana Majerová appeared on stage.
The event started shortly after 14:00 with the Czech national anthem. It was sung by the singer Tomáš Ortel, whose original name was Tomáš Hnídek. The organizers had major minor technical problems with the transmission of events from Wenceslas Square to other cities. The organizers describe themselves as non-political citizens. They gave their protest the subtitle Nonviolent Revolution. They already published their demands at their previous event in early September. They demand, among other things, the conclusion of gas contracts directly with Russia, withdrawal from NATO, the EU, the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO), voluntary vaccination, “the end of the planned solution of the nation” by Ukrainian refugees, and food self-sufficiency.
The demonstrators brought with them national flags and anti-government banners. They chanted “resignation”, “shame” or “thieves”. Speakers criticized the government’s approach to capping energy prices. According to the speakers, there will be a lack of scarcity and it will be reflected in the lack of food. They also complained about lack of freedom, censorship or totalitarianism. They marked themselves as dissenters. The speakers opposed the war and the supply of arms to Ukraine. “If we, as a nation, manage to take different political directions in the country, we will not send any weapons,” said Vrábel. He said that together with Havel, he is going to see President Miloš Zeman on October 10. They will ask him to dismiss the government and call early elections. They refer to the Constitution and its section 62, according to which the head of state “appoints and dismisses the president and other members of the government and accepts their resignation, dismisses the government and accepts its resignation”. The organizers also called on the deputies to resign from their parties, keep their mandate and work as independents “directly for the Czech nation”.
The German MEP from the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD) Christine Andersonová and the German AfD MP Petr Bystroň came to support the protesters. According to him, the populists are fighting for the people against the globalists, namely for “family, God, homeland and our freedom”. He and other speakers supported former US President Donald Trump.
The event was supervised by the police. According to his spokesman, Jan Daňko, he resolved a minor conflict near the building of the National Museum, where a group of people with opposing views had gathered. “Police officers from the special order unit had to come there, but they didn’t have to intervene in any way, they didn’t care about anyone, they didn’t limit themselves to personal freedom, their presence was enough to calm people down,” police officer Daněk told ČTK. He confirmed that tens of thousands of people participated in the demonstration.
According to the ČTK reporter, the incident also took place in the crowd, where a young man came with the “Rusophilic to Russia” vision. A man standing next to him attacked him, others joined in. The young man was then taken away by the police. The organizers called the protester a provocateur. In total, during the demonstration, they called on the police to intervene against the provocateurs four times.
In Brno and other cities, hundreds of people gathered for anti-government demonstrations
According to the estimate of the police and the secretary of the Brno-střed municipal district, Petr Štika, about 1,500 people gathered for anti-government demonstrations in Brno in the afternoon. The participants watched a large screen showing the events in Prague’s Wenceslas Square, where the main part of the event took place. Protest events were also held in other Czech cities today, according to the police, several people gathered in Pilsen’s central Republic Square, around 500 in Liberec in front of the House of Culture and around a hundred in Olomouc in the area in front of the regional office by the train station.
The event in Brno was peaceful, the police did not have to intervene. The participants of the event had with them the flags of the Czech Republic and Moravian flags. Banners against the government were also seen, with inscriptions such as “Fialo, that’s enough, you are warmongers,” or “What are you crazy, there are people here.” Thanks to the video transmission, the protestors set up events and speeches on Wenceslas Square, whistling and chanting “resignation, resignation.”
The main part of the event takes place on Wenceslas Square, where, according to the police’s estimate, “low tens of thousands” of participants arrived. The event started shortly after 14:00 with the Czech national anthem. It was sung by the singer Tomáš Ortel, whose original name was Tomáš Hnídek. The organizers had major minor technical problems with the transmission of events from Wenceslas Square to other cities.
People also watched the broadcast in Pilsen’s central Republic Square, according to the police estimate, hundreds of people gathered there, the organizers of the event estimated the attendance at 1,000 to 2,000 people. The participants were equipped with Czech banners, but also SPD or KSČM banners. According to the police, the event was so far without conflicts, it was supervised by the state and city police. Shortly after the start of the transmission from Prague, heavy rain started, but only a small part of the people left the square. The event is announced in Pilsen no later than 19:00, but the convenor of the Pilsen event, Daniel Šváb, assumes that people will disperse immediately after the Prague demonstration ends.
A similar demonstration was also held in Nejdek in Karlovy Vary. “40 to 50 people came to it, they kept coming and going, so far it is going on without conflicts and peacefully,” said police spokesman Jakub Kopřiva.
In Liberec, according to police estimates, around 500 people gathered in front of the House of Culture in Liberec in the afternoon. In addition to watching the broadcast from Prague, people, mostly middle-aged and older, signed a petition for the government’s withdrawal and also for children’s right to education without restrictions. At the same time, businessman Josef Roušal collected signatures for his presidential candidacy there.
Roughly a hundred people gathered today for a demonstration in Olomouc. Some people came with Czech, Moravian and Slovak flags. The rhetorical energy of the slogans of the government and expensive praises rejected further military aid by Russia to the attacked Ukraine and chanted demands for resignation.
On the square of Přemysl Otakar II in České Budějovice. today’s demonstration, according to police estimates, involved up to 500 people. Until 3:50 p.m., the police officers did not notice any disturbance there.
About 1,000 people gathered in Ostrava for a demonstration organized by the SPD
Approximately 1,000 people gathered at the central Masaryk Square in Ostrava for an anti-government demonstration organized by the opposition SPD. They had many Czech flags with them, balloons with the SPD logo, but the Moravian, Silesian and Alliance of National Forces flags were also flying in the crowd. People demanded the resignation of the government, chanted several times: “Resignation, resignation!”
Jaromíra started the demonstration with the song “Nohavici Ostrava” and the national anthem. After that, a number of speakers took turns on the stage, including the writer Lenka Procházková and Jiří Janeček from the Otvérme Česko – Chcípl PES movement. But SPD chairman Tomio Okamura received the biggest applause, who spoke first.
“We call on the government of Peter Fiala to stop the price hike. We don’t want war and we want peace,” Okamura said. According to him, the participants of the demonstration came to support the demand that the government defend the interests of the citizens of the Czech Republic, not tolerate robbing families, working people, seniors, and Czech companies, and not trample on their rights and freedoms.
The chairman of the SPD said, among other things, that he proposes the nationalization of the energy producer ČEZ and that ČEZ primarily sell energy on the Czech market directly to people and companies and at prices corresponding to the production price and corresponding profit. “I propose that the state buy gas directly from the producer at the lowest available prices and supply directly to households and businesses at these low prices,” Okamura also said.