From the extreme right to the Communist Party, the La République Czech movement first takes advantage of fears linked to the increase in the price of energy to mobilize against the pro-Western government of Petr Fiala.
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The magnitude of the demonstration has been a shock in a country where support for Ukraine has been massive since the start of the war. Saturday, September 3, 70,000 Czechs – according to the police – demonstrated Place Venceslas, in the heart of Prague. Officially, they protested against the energy policy of the Conservative government of the Prime Minister, Petr Fiala, and the increase in energy prices. In reality, the rally was an opportunity to chant prorussies messages.
On the scene, the multiple organizers of this movement named the Czech Republic first, combining different far -right formations with representatives of the local communist party, including conspirators and anti -vax, followed one another to launch Slogans against the European Union (EU), NATO and the pro-Ukrainian policy of the government. “The government is perhaps Ukrainian, it may be Brussels, but it is certainly not Czech,” proclaimed Zuzana Majerova Zahradnikova, the president of the small tricolor nationalist right party.
This movement surprised observers and local political leaders in this central European country which has been strongly mobilized to accommodate nearly 400,000 Ukrainian refugees and which massively delivers weapons to kyiv. Mr. Fiala, at the head of a firmly pro-Western coalition, attacked the organizers by calling them “fifth Russian column”. “According to them, the solution to expensive energy is to get out of NATO and the EU. They want to make us again a vassal of Moscow,” he denounced.
Change of atmosphere
In parallel with the resignation of the government, one of the main demands of the demonstrators is indeed “to conclude direct contracts for the supply of gas with Russia” and to request the return of Ukrainian refugees to their homes. Like most EU countries, the Czech Republic has seen its gas deliveries plunge in recent months due to the selective cut policy practiced by the Russian supplier Gazprom. “Many of the demonstrators were not pro-Kremlin, but they are very worried about this winter, estimates Milos Gregor, political scientist at Masaryk University in Brno. The organizers, who are identified personalities of the extremist and prorusian scene, in took advantage. “
Successively passed from the denunciation of Muslim migrants to that of anti-COVVIVE measures and then in support of Russia in the Ukrainian conflict, the main organizer, Ladislav TRUBEL, “knows how to seize the subjects that divide society”, says Mr. Gregor, who puts his influence into perspective. “The majority of Czechs are still in favor of support for Ukraine.” But, this time, Ladislas Truebel was joined by far -right political forces, as well as by the Czech Communist Party, some representatives always greet the ‘crushing of the printemps of Prague of 1968 by the Soviet army. Most of these training courses did not cross the threshold necessary to sit in parliament during the legislative elections of 2021.
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