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A quarter of a million Czechs took to the streets of Prague. “We don't want to be Hungarians”
The slogan of the protest is “We will not allow our future to be stolen.” As Reuters writes, Saturday's demonstration is the largest demonstration against the government in the Czech Republic since 2019. The protest organizers said that 250,000 people gathered on the grounds of the Letenské sady park in Prague. people.
The demonstrators oppose the government of Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who took power again last fall. Those gathered fear that the government will take a path that will lead the Czech Republic to deteriorate its relations with the European Union, and they are also firmly against the pro-Russian orientation.
Czechs also fear that the government's decisions will weaken their country in the face of the threat from Russia. The lower house of the Czech parliament recently approved a budget law limiting military spending. According to the country's president, this decision weakens trust in the Czech Republic within NATO.
The streets of Prague were flooded with protesters. Czechs “don't want to be Hungarians”
The protesters support President Petro Pavel, public institutions and Czech public television and criticize specific government decisions, such as the change in the financing of public media.
Reuters quotes a 22-year-old man as saying that he is “annoyed that the government is trying to manipulate independent media.” “Freedom and democracy are the most important,” he says.
— We don't want to be Hungarians. We do not want to follow the path of Slovakia. It's time to wake up, another protester tells the agency.
This is yet another anti-government protest in the Czech Republic this year. The previous one took place in February. At that time, however, the turnout was not so high. The number of protesters did not exceed 100,000.
