PHOTO A man with Wagner signs and the letter Z was arrested at the protest in Prague / Clashes with the Czech police after a group of demonstrators tried to tear the Ukrainian flag from the National Museum

Thousands of people demonstrated in Prague on Saturday against the Czech government and the decrease in living standards, in an event called “Czech Republic Against Poverty”, where the protesters criticized NATO and demanded “immediate peace” in Ukraine, reports News. ro. In the end, some demonstrators wanted to tear the Ukrainian flag from the National Museum building and clashes with the police took place, reports the local press.

“We gathered today to revolt,” said Jindrich Rajchl, lawyer and leader of PRO, the political party that organized the rally in Prague’s Wenceslas Square.

Like many other European countries, the Czech Republic has been facing record levels of inflation since last year, mainly due to rising energy prices. In February, the annual inflation rate in this EU and NATO member state, with 10.5 million inhabitants, reached 16.7%.

Protesters called for the resignation of the government led by center-right Prime Minister Petr Fiala, while Jindrich Rajchl said he wanted a government that “looks first at the interests of Czech citizens”. The demonstrators also criticized NATO and demanded immediate peace in Ukraine.

According to idnes.cz, during the demonstration, a participant in the crowd with a megaphone asked people to remove the Ukrainian flag from the facade of the nearby National Museum. “We are Czechs, what are you?” – he shouted. So, after the end of Saturday’s protest in Wenceslas Square, hundreds of demonstrators moved towards the National Museum and wanted to enter the building and tear down the hoisted Ukrainian flag.

Immediately the police came, the situation escalated and clashes occurred with the protesters, as a result of which the police detained 18 people and two police officers were injured. Also, a man who had a backpack with the insignia of the Russian mercenary group Wagner and the letter Z, a symbol of Russian aggression in Ukraine, was arrested.

Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Vít Rakušan considers the violent speeches at the end of the demonstration completely unacceptable, when some participants demanded that the Ukrainian flag be torn from the National Museum. “I expect the organizers to distance themselves from these acts of violence. It gives the impression that the whole so-called anti-poverty demonstration was just a cover for a pro-Russian provocation, and we certainly cannot be tolerant of such demonstrations,” said Rakusan.

The Czech Republic has, as of Friday, a new president, Petr Pavel, former commander of the country’s army and former chairman of the NATO Military Committee, who is a convinced pro-Westerner and favorable to helping Ukraine in the war against Russia.

The PRO party, one of the organizers of Saturday’s protest, wants the government to convene a peace conference for Ukraine and stop supplying weapons to Kiev. Its leader, Jindrich Rajchl, is a controversial politician. A former Czech football official, he founded his PRO party last June.

Starting in 2020, he organized demonstrations against measures related to the coronavirus epidemic and the evolution of the conflict in Ukraine. He was accused of spreading a series of false information about the pandemic. Many Czechs perceive Rajchl as a pro-Kremlin politician. He was also among those who participated in the anti-government demonstration on September 3, 2022, where 70,000 people came to express their opposition to the EU and NATO and asked the government to conclude favorable contracts in the field of energy, including with Russia.

source: News.ro