According to the Prague legislators, Zeman barricaded himself in the Castle
Update: 12/30/2022 10:47 AM
Issued by: 30/12/2022, 10:47
Prague – Miloš Zeman will be remembered as a president who obeyed regimes in Russia and China, barricaded himself in Prague Castle and lived out the end of his presidency detached from the lives of ordinary people. In the open letters this was stated by senator Jiří Růžička (for TOP 09) and MP STAN Jan Lacina, who in recent years unsuccessfully called on the will of the state to remove security checks and roadblocks at the entrances to the Castle.
According to both legislators, the fact that Zeman reconsidered his stance on Vladimir Putin’s regime this year after the February invasion of Ukraine and visited Russian Interior Minister Vít Rakušan (STAN) in November to abolish control at entrances to the Castle. According to the minister, however, the controls will remain in place for the duration of Russian aggression against Ukraine. The police presidium also announced last month that it is still insisting on maintaining control.
“I firmly believe that the armed conflict in Ukraine will end in the foreseeable future, the security situation in Europe will stabilize and the repulsive fortifications of the Prague Castle complex will disappear. But it will be without you. You will be remembered as the president who shamefully indulged in undemocratic regimes in Russia and China, he barricaded himself in Prague Castle and lived out the end of his presidency, separated from the lives of ordinary people of this beautiful country, in the castle in Lány,” wrote the legislators to Zeman.
Roadblocks and controls at the entrances to the Castle were introduced in 2016, and were renewed after last year’s Easter break. According to Růžička and Lacina, it was the president’s “undisguised revenge against the Czech public” for the recessive action of the Ztohoven art group, whose members hung red shorts in the Castle instead of the presidential standard.
In previous years, Růžička and Lacina always called on Zeman at the end of the year to have the checks at the entrances to the Castle abolished. They called it an unnecessary attitude, disgraceful and in contradiction with the previous democratic presidents. The Office of the President of the Republic rejected the calls, and at the beginning of this year it also accused both legislators of spreading misinformation and of “trying to incite hatred with their provocations”. According to the president’s office, the castle is accessible to the public as far as possible and the Castle grounds are passable.