More than 10,000 people filled the Czech capital’s central Wenceslas Square on Friday, with demonstrators calling for the government to resign as consumers face sharply rising prices.
The latest such rally to be held in Prague is intensifying pressure on Prime Minister Petr Fiala to address public concerns over soaring energy costs. The protest underscores an emerging trend of populist political forces across Europe tapping public anger over rising prices compounded by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Waving national flags and banners against the government and the European Union, protesters chanted “resign, resign, resign,” calling for early elections and negotiations with Russia on gas. Police estimated the number of participants in the “lower tens of thousands.”
Dubbed Czech Republic First, the protest was the third of its kind organized by a group calling for the nation’s exit from NATO and renewed ties with Moscow. Nationalist activists have blasted the EU’s sanctions against Moscow as the source of the region’s turmoil -- and called for talks with the Kremlin to secure fresh supplies of cheaper natural gas.
On social media, organizers have attacked the government’s support for some 400,000 Ukrainian refugees in the country and called on authorities to prevent them from permanently settling in the Czech Republic. The Interior Ministry described a similar protest that drew 70,000 in September as promoting “pro-Kremlin propagandist narratives.”
Fiala’s government has been one of the EU’s most ardent backers of Kyiv, supplying it with everything from tanks and ammunition to political support. Initially refusing to offer blanket subsidies, Fiala’s cabinet has responded to growing frustration with price caps on power and natural gas for households and small businesses.
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