(29 Mar 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Prague - 29 March 2023
1. Various of protesters, horns blowing
2. Sign reading (Czech): "Government liars and traitors."
3. SOUNDBITE (Czech) Josef Stredula, Czech trade union activist:
"How can we trust a government that claims there is not enough money in the pension fund and on the other hand passes laws that will erase another 10 billion crowns (about 460 million Us dollars) from the pension fund this year?"
4. Various of protesters, horns blowing
5. Close of banner reading (Czech): "Cars only for the rich - No!"
6. SOUNDBITE (Czech), Andrej Babis, leader of the opposition ANO (YES) party:
"The government is the most terrible, the most incompetent, the most untruthful government that sits in this building."
7. Various of protesters, horns blowing
8. SOUNDBITE (Czech), Roman Becica, protester:
"We came to protest against raise of the retirement age. We think that people toil so much that even 60 years is too much for retirement age. We must mention the demanding jobs in steelwork factories, rolling mills, coal ovens, coal mines - those people are unable to work at 60, even less if we raise the retirement age."
9. Various of protesters blowing horns
STORYLINE:
Czech labour unions joined forces with opposition parties on Wednesday to rally against changes in the pension system considered by the government.

A couple thousand protesters gathered in front of the government office in Prague to voice disapproval over an option to raise the retire age to up to 68 years.

Labour and Social Affairs Minister Marian Jurecka recently appeared to backtrack from the original proposal but his ministry said in a statement said the 68-year age limit is on the negotiation table.

The government is yet to finalise its plans for the pension reform which it said is needed to make the system sustainable.

Leaders of the major opposition parliamentary and non-parliamentary parties participated in the rally.

They included the centrist ANO (YES) party led by populist billionaire Andrej Babis, the major anti-migrant force, the Direct Democracy Party, far-left Communist and leftist Social Democrats.

Babis called on the unions to organise large-scale protests and labelled the government as "the most terrible, the most incompetent, the most untruthful."

The current retirement age in the Czech Republic stands at 64 years.

A recently approved plan in France raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 caused massive nationwide protests there.

The Czech government didn’t immediately respond to the protest.

AP Video shot by Jan Gebert

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