Over 200,000 people attended a protest on Saturday in Prague’s Letna Park against the actions of the government of Andrej Babis (ANO), responding to issues related to the public media, the non-profit sector, culture, agriculture and the environment. The protest, entitled “We Won’t Let Our Future Be Stolen”, began at 3pm and lasted for nearly two and a half hours. It was organised by the Million Moments protest movement.
The first participants carrying a large Czech flag arrived shortly after noon. Protesters carried flags of the Czech Republic, the EU, NATO, and Ukraine, as well as banners with slogans criticising the government or expressing support for President Petr Pavel and Czech TV anchorman Vaclav Moravec who recently stepped down.
They signs read, for example, “Hands off culture”, “We won’t give you the Czech Republic”, “Democracy for future generations”, “Let’s stop the government’s farce”, “Government of international disgrace”, “Red Babis, gravedigger of the Czech Republic”, and “ANO (Yes), things used to be better.”
On some sidewalks in the park, there were also chalk inscriptions from opponents of the rally, such as “Let’s not be sheep manipulated by a generously funded political NGO” and “A million pigsties against democracy.”
Speakers criticised how much influence the smaller coalition partners, Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and the Motorists, have in the government with ANO. According to Czech Radio Radiozurnal, the president’s wife, Eva Pavlova, also attended the rally.
Babis said in an Instagram video on Saturday morning that the day would be “a big day of lies”, because “that pathological liar (Petr) Fiala (ODS) and his lying government have introduced this culture of lies here.” However, he did not mention that his statement was a reaction to the demonstration at Letna.
At the end of the protest, a group of people dressed as mythical medieval Blanik knights took the stage. “Nation, if you stand idle, feed the trolls, look to your own comfort and wait for us, you can meet evil. We sleep – you fight,” said the group’s spokeswoman, with irony.
After the speeches by regional associates of the Million Moments group, the national anthem closed the rally.
The demonstration was among the largest since 1989. The Million Moments group has organised protests against Babis several times in the past, repeatedly bringing together tens of thousands of people. On 16 November 2019, the largest number of people since the Velvet Revolution came to demonstrate at Letna, between 250,000 and 300,000 people, according to the organisers.
Letna Park has been the site of protest rallies since 1989, when an estimated 750,000 people gathered there a week after the suppression of a student protest in Prague center.
