© Lukas Kabon / Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesProtest against the Czech government at Wenceslas Square in Prague, Czechia, September 28, 2022.
A crowd numbered in the
tens of thousands gathered in Prague on Wednesday to protest against the Czech government, NATO, and the European Union. Demonstrators called for Czechia's neutrality and protested Prime Minister Petr Fiala's policy of sanctioning Russia, which has driven up energy prices.
Meeting on St. Wenceslas' Day - a public holiday celebrating Czech statehood - the crowd took to Prague's main square, named after the medieval saint, and chanted slogans against the EU, NATO and Fiala's cabinet.
Prague police would not give a specific figure of the estimated crowd size, calling it only "tens of thousands."
The protest was organized by a group called 'Czech Republic First,' which Reuters described as a coalition of "far-right and fringe groups and parties including the Communists." CRF opposes the EU and NATO and has called for Czechia's military neutrality.
"A government has two duties: to ensure our security and economic prosperity. This government does not fulfill either of these duties," said one unidentified speaker at the rally, according to Reuters.
A demonstrator named Pavel Nebel accused the government of being "absolutely anti-Czech" and serving only the EU, NATO, and "American power" at the expense of Czech interests.
The organizers called for another protest on October 28 and said they intend to ask President Milos Zeman to disband the government and call for early elections, according to
Lidove Noviny. It was the second such rally this month, after some 70,000 people took part in the September 3 protest, according to police. Similar rallies in other Czech cities drew hundreds of participants.
"People should not be taken advantage of by manipulators who offer simple but unrealistic solutions in the squares," Interior Minister Vit Rakusan told Lidove in response to the protest.
Fiala had dismissed the September 3 demonstrations as "pro-Russian," accusing their organizers of listening to "Russian propaganda and disinformation campaigns." His government has diligently followed the lead of Brussels in imposing trade embargoes against Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine, which has translated into skyrocketing prices of energy normally imported from Russia.
Czechia had joined NATO in March 1999, just days before the US-led bloc attacked Yugoslavia. It became a member of the EU in May 2004.
Reader Comments
Nope, majority is deaf, blind and mute..
Angry masses are dumb masses, too.. So I'm rather afraid of people accepting totalitarian state with periodical jabs after a period of total chaos - all goes well with the elites plan.. I guess that's why controlled (Aspen or else) opposition is on the rise..
And yeah, just the price of gas for cooking & heating has risen 8x for next year compared to this year.. People will either die, or die.. that's the "plan" all along. No wonder why the Police is training shooting all the time during the week, they're obviously preparing, like FEMA and Dept. of Homeland Security in the US.. security for the rich only, as usual. Stakeholder capitalism with monetizing the approximated $4 Trillion worth in Nature assets and DNA all over the globe, please clean out your backyard & porch back there beyond the pond as well, thank you
Soon-to-be-disarmed Americans though. You better hurry up before it all implodes and FEMA gets to use all those damn coffins they've been stocking up on..
I can tell the Europe's fate will be similar - just we've got a lot less of guns to defend against the invaders, of which millions are again on the move to "EU promised land"..
Hunger games for this Christmas already, ain't it great? I hope we roast some traitors at least..
This scares the sh*t out of the unelected Central Commitee in Bruessels, because it's not only the Czechs.
But considering few people can pay 8x or 10x increase on energy bills, TPTB can hardly expect anything but total anarchy when people run out of ways to pay.. And then the gov't can go full totalitarian style on the masses.