(ANSA-AP) - PRAGUE - Hundreds of thousands of people rallied
Sunday in Prague to urge Prime Minister Andrej Babis to resign,
assembling from across the Czech Republic for the capital's
biggest anti-government protest since the 1989 pro-democratic
Velvet Revolution that brought down the communist regime.
The demonstration at Letna Park, a site of massive
gatherings that significantly contributed to the fall of
communism in what 30 years ago was Czechoslovakia, was the
largest from two months of street protests opposing Babis. The
protesters of 2019 said they didn't come to overthrow the
current political system but to defend it. They consider Babis,
a populist billionaire, as a threat to democracy, including the
independence of the country's legal system.
"We demand the resignation of Andrej Babis," said Mikulas
Minar, a student who put his studies on hold to help lead the
recent demonstrations organized by a group called Million
Moments for Democracy. Babis has repeatedly said he has no
reason to resign. "It will likely be a long run," another
organizer, Benjamin Roll, told the crowd. "The current situation
is unacceptable." Opposition to Babis has been fueled by the
appointment of a new justice minister as prosecutors are
deciding whether to indict Babis over alleged fraud involving
European Union funds. The protesters fear the new minister might
undermine the independence of the Czech legal system, a threat
that has brought the governments of Poland and Romania warnings
from the European Union. Justice Minister Marie Benesova is a
close ally of Babis' and voted against a police request to strip
the prime minister of parliamentary immunity to face a criminal
investigation.
A preliminary European Union report leaked in May concluded
that Babis might have had a conflict of interest over EU
subsidies involving his former business empire. Babis denied
wrongdoing and accused the EU of trying to destabilize the Czech
Republic. Besides demanding the prime minister and justice
minister's resignations, many of the demonstrators accused Babis
and his key ally, President Milos Zeman, of undermining Czech
politics and democracy overall. Babis also faces allegations he
collaborated with Czechoslovakia's secret police before 1989, as
well as criticism of his government's power-sharing deal with
the Communist Party. "What is happening is more than we can
tolerate," said Dagmar Kratochvilova, a 60-year-old pottery
maker who traveled across the country on a bus to reach Prague
with others from the eastern city of Frydek Mistek. The peaceful
crowd chanted "Resign, resign," and "We've had enough" while
waving Czech and also European Union flags. "No Tolerance for
Lies and Fraud," read a banner unrolled by the demonstrators.
"I'm fed up with the government," Natalie Bartkova, 18, a
student from just south of Prague. "Babis seems to think that
anything goes for him." Babis' critics cited a new source of
frustration, blaming him is for contributing to the inability of
European Union leaders to agree on a plan to make the bloc's
economy carbon neutral by 2050. The protesters announced another
major protest at the same location for Nov.16 to commemorate the
30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. (ANSA-AP).
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