November 19, 2019

Czechs against re-sinking into a dictatorship

topic:	Democracy
located:	Czech Republic
editor:	Katarina Panić

The civic movement Million Moments for Democracy had organised the largest protests in the Czech Republic since the Velvet Revolution. In June, a quarter of a million people gathered in the famous Letna plain in Prague, as well as last Saturday, a day ahead of the anniversary of the biggest rallies in 1989, which ended communism in former Czechoslovakia peacefully.

Thirty years ago, people wanted to get rid of communism. This time they want to get rid of their government, singing the very same “we are here” just as they did weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Today, they demand the Prime Minister and ANO party leader Andrej Babiš whether to resign whether to sell his business and media empire, since he is allegedly in a severe conflict of interests. If he ignores these requests by the end of the year, they’re going to gather again on January 7, 2020.

Anti-government protests started earlier this year after police investigation against Babiš over the European Union subsidy fraud. The state prosecutor’s office dropped that probe. Protesters believe the new justice minister from ANO party Marie Benešová was brought to meddle in this criminal case. However, the European Commission’s investigation on potential conflict of interests related to farm subsidies continued and hopefully cannot be influenced by Babiš. At this point, it showed the Czech Republic may have to repay €2 million in EU subsidies awarded to Babiš’s conglomerate Agrofert.

Babiš repeats his interests in Agrofert have been moved to trust funds. Anyway, Forbes put him on the top five richest Czechs. According to the magazine, he dropped from last year’s second spot to fourth. His assets have shrunk by five to 70 billion crowns ($3 billion). “Although Agrofert is currently placed in two trust funds, Andrej Babiš remains the beneficiary of these funds, therefore we still include him on the list,” Forbes wrote last month.

Babiš refuses to meet the protesters in public, as they demand. He considers them as opposition supporters. He disrespects a number of people in the streets as insignificant, compared to his 1.5 million votes in the 2017 elections. He claims it is great that people can express their opinion publicly, reminding them that no one persecutes or attacks them because of that.

Focusing more on identity than on the economy, ANO won thirty percent by using the fear of migrants to create a sense of external threat – just like Hungary and Poland do. Moreover, it gave the power to communists for the very first time since the fall of communism.

Now, following what happens in the neighbourhood, protesters are more determined to fight against human rights violations, autocracy, censorship – everything that many of them recall that the dictatorship brings with it.