Illustration photo – Minister of the Interior Vít Rakušan, October 18, 2022, Prague.
Prague – According to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Vít Rakušan (STAN), the police intervention after Saturday's demonstration in Prague was professional. In the first phase, he was defensive, then she had to respond adequately to the violence, he said in the program Otázky Václav Moravec on Czech Television. During the operation, two policemen were injured, according to the Austrian, not seriously, in one case it may be necessary to be disabled. He has no information about injured protesters.
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Photo gallery: Czech demonstration against poverty
The Czech anti-poverty anti-government demonstration on Saturday was called by the Pravo Respekt Odbornost (PRO) party on Wenceslas Square in the center of Prague. After the official end of the event at approximately 17:00, some of the participants tried to remove the Ukrainian flag from the facade of the National Museum. The police called on the demonstrators to leave, and heavily armed men arrived on the scene and blocked the entrance to the building. The police arrested 18 people, they are suspected of a misdemeanor. One of the participants was detained on suspicion of a crime. According to photos from the demonstration, the man had the letter Z on his backpack, which is used by the Russian army during the war in Ukraine, and on his sleeve the logo of the Russian mercenary group Wagner.
“It is possible that someone will attack a particular intervention in some way and the like, but it seemed very professional to me. In the first phase, defensive. The police primarily tried to lead people away from the museum who could be potential targets of those who tried to forcibly enter the National museum,” said the Austrian.
The Forum 24 server reported today that Miroslav Ševčík, the dean of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Economics in Prague, was among the people who tried to get into the building. Rector Petr Dvořák wants to talk to him about his appearance at the demonstration on Monday. Ševčík told ČTK today that he did not take part in the demonstration, he only accompanied a man who was beaten by the police. Therefore, he does not understand the criticisms of the VŠE management.
The Austrian has information that Ševčík was allowed to speak with the officer who commanded the intervention. He was instructed on the spot that if he suspected illegal police action to report it to the nearest police station.
“The police only started to prevent entry by using some coercive means when the crowd itself showed aggression,” said the deputy prime minister. “Even the number of detained persons shows that there were probably situations that forced the police to intervene,” he added.
Participants of Saturday's anti-government demonstration filled Wenceslas Square along the entire width of Opletalova Street. They were in the center of the square as far as Jindřišská Street. The chairman of the organizing party PRO, Jindřich Rajchl, said that if the government does not accept his party's demands or does not resign, another protest will take place at the same place on April 16 and the action will turn into a blockade of government buildings.
First vice-chairman of the opposition movement ANO Karel Havlíček criticized the attempted forced entry into the National Museum. He did not condemn the demonstration as such, saying that the people opposed the asociality of the government, its failure to manage the energy crisis or censorship.
The Austrian said that he did not question the fear and emotions of the people who demonstrated. According to him, in some cases the government should have described its actions better. But he condemned the escalation of the protest into an attack on the National Museum because of the Ukrainian flag. According to him, if a blockade of government buildings were to occur, it is necessary to ensure that buildings and government institutions have a standard possibility to function.
