The Czech Republic experienced an unprecedented wave of civil resistance on Sunday, which, according to the organizers, surpassed in scale all rallies since 1989. People took to the streets of more than 400 cities and towns to express support for President Petr Pavl following the case of alleged extortion by Foreign Minister Petr Macinka.
Czech citizens took to the streets again on Sunday to support their president, Peter Pavle. The demonstrations followed the gathering from the beginning of February, when tens of thousands of people gathered at the Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square in Prague. TASR writes about it according to the website Novinky.cz
- Czechs once again demonstrated in support of President Petr Pavel.
- The gatherings followed the protests from early February.
- Demonstrations were held in more than 400 villages and towns.
Minář: It is a matter of what path the Czech Republic will take
The mentioned gathering took place on February 1 in response to the case concerning the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs and the chairman of the Motoristi sebe party, Petr Macinka. According to Pavle, Macinka tried to blackmail him in an attempt to get their deputy Filip Turk to head the Ministry of the Environment.
“This is no longer about the president. It’s about what path the Czech Republic will take,” Mikuláš Minář, chairman of the Million Moments for Democracy association, which organized the event, wrote on the X platform.
A record number of places?
More than 400 cities and municipalities signed up for demonstrations, including Pilsen, Liberec, Brno and Olomouc. Only in the Liberec region itself, about 16 municipalities joined the assemblies. According to Minář, there have never been demonstrations in so many places at once since the Gentle Revolution.
Even before the demonstrations, Macinka said that he sees the action as a protest of the opposition. According to him, however, the pressure will not change the direction of the current government.
At the same time, during the demonstrations, the association collects signatures for the appeal entitled “We stand behind the president”. So far, there are more than 760,000 of them, and in the event that their number exceeds one million, a large gathering will take place on Letenská plana in Prague. They last managed to fill it in 2019, when people protested against Andrej Babiš, who was also the prime minister at the time. At that time, the association estimated the participation of 300,000 people.
