Demonstration Czech Republic against poverty, called by the party Right Respect Expertise (PRO), March 11, 2023, Prague.
Prague – Even in bad weather, thousands of people arrived at Prague's Wenceslas Square for the Czech anti-poverty anti-government demonstration called by the Právo Respekt Odbornost (PRO) party. According to the ČTK reporter, the square was densely packed to Opletalová Street. The demonstration started at 14:00 and lasted for three hours. The organizer and head of 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.
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Photo gallery: Czech demonstration against poverty
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After the end of the official demonstration, several hundred protesters moved in front of the National Museum, where they demanded the removal of the Ukrainian flag. The police asked them to leave, there are heavily armed men on the scene who blocked the entrance to the museum. There was some shoving.
Many participants held Czech flags, some had banners demanding the resignation of the cabinet. Along Opletalova Street, people were standing across the entire width of the square, below it the crowd was thinner. Dozens of people watched the protest from the area in front of the entrance to the National Museum. On the banners, people also had inscriptions such as “Away with the Purple Clown Machine”, “They are scraping the state, adding to themselves” or “Stop the war, stop NATO”. They whistled, chanted “Shame!”, “Resignation!” or “Scoundrels”. When asked by ČTK, the police did not want to estimate the number of participants, at around 15:30 they said that they had not noticed any conflicts.
“We have come together today to stand up to this misery. That we may never again be ruled by signal transmitters, sweater knitters, purse tank owners, or mobile phone military simulation players. That this country may never again be ruled by the interests of multinational corporations, but by a government that will put the interests of the citizens of the Czech Republic first,” said lawyer Rajchl.
At the end of the event, he stated that if the government does not accept his party's demands by April 10, or does not resign, the 16 April, another demonstration on Wenceslas Square, which will turn into a blockade of government buildings.
Lawyer Ondřej Dostál, who worked with the Pirates in the past, stated that the government's amendment on the lower valuation of pensions is unconstitutional, which earned a strong response among the participants. He also noted that some of those performing at the demonstration will also travel around villages and cities and hold discussions with citizens.
“No one has the right to take our state away from us, no one has the right to abuse political positions,” said Bohumír Dufek, chairman of the Association of Independent Trade Unions. According to him, the Parliament is not able to recover. “Therefore, we will have to resort to coercive measures and look for a certain alternative,” he said. He also called for the blocking of supermarket warehouses if they do not change their pricing policy.
Senator Jana Zwyrtek Hamplová (for the Independents) said that some of her colleagues in the upper chamber of Parliament are beginning to gain support. She also spoke about the fact that even for politicians and the highest constitutional officials, the rules and legal order apply. “Our capital is neither Brussels, nor Washington, nor Moscow, nor Kyiv, our capital is Prague and our country is called the Czech Republic,” she noted.
Other speakers included lawyer Tomáš Nielsen, choreographer Petr Zuska, director and screenwriter Igor Chaun, former senator Alena Dernerová, epidemiologist Jiří Beran and doctor and former Olympian Lukáš Pollert sent a message via video. The organizers had to call on the demonstrators several times to vacate the side of the square because someone had collapsed and an ambulance could not reach him. prevented social network operators from restricting freedom of speech or to introduce a legal obligation for the media to provide objective and balanced information. According to PRO's ideas, the cabinet should acquire 100 percent control of ČEZ, in which it now holds roughly 70 percent of the shares, and the state should also abandon the system of trading emission allowances.
PRO also wants the government to clearly strive for peaceful resolution of the war in Ukraine, including the possible organization of a peace conference in the Czech Republic. According to her, the Cabinet should also end supplies of military equipment to Ukraine.
