As Europe faces an historic energy crisis, the Czech Republic witnessed the continent’s first large-scale demonstration against surging energy costs. On Saturday, an estimated 70,000 demonstrators held an anti-government and anti-European Union protest in Czech capital Prague.
The anti-establishment demonstration, also known as the “Czech Republic First,” comprised of groups ranging from populist-right to far-left. “Dubbed ‘Czech Republic First,’ the protest highlighted rising inflation fueled by a rise in energy prices, Covid-19 vaccinations, and immigrants,” the German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported.
The mass-demonstration took place as Russia shuts down its main natural gas pipeline to Europe indefinitely, plunging the continent into an even deeper energy crisis. “The Russian energy major [sic] Gazprom extended the shutdown of gas flows through its key Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany on Friday evening, providing no timeframe for a reopening,” the British newspaper the Guardian reported.
Before the Ukraine war started, Russia supplied the EU with 40 percent of its natural gas consumption. With Moscow now cutting almost all supplies, the energy prices across the EU are skyrocketing ahead of the winter.
The French TV channel France24 covered the protest:
Tens of thousands of protestors from both the far right and far left demonstrated against the Czech government, EU and NATO on Saturday.An estimated 70,000 people took to the streets of Prague, calling on the ruling coalition to bring energy prices under control while voicing their opposition to the European Union (EU) and NATO.Protest organisers from several far-right and fringe political groups said the central European nation should be neutral militarily and maintain gas imports from Russia.An estimated 70,000 people took to the streets, according to police.Some of the groups at the protest were the anti-migrant populist Freedom and Direct Democracy party, alongside the Czech Communist Party.”The aim of our demonstration is to demand change, mainly in solving the issue of energy prices, especially electricity and gas, which will destroy our economy this autumn,” event co-organizer Jiri Havel told local media.The protesters demanded the resignation of conservative Prime Minister Petr Fiala, criticising his coalition government on a number of issues, while slamming its Western-oriented policies.Demonstrators gathered at Wenceslas Square in the city centre, one day after the government survived a no-confidence vote amid opposition claims of inaction against inflation and energy prices.
Much like the Democrats and the mainstream media in the U.S., Czech Republic’s pro-EU coalition government dismissed people’s legitimate protest amid skyrocketing energy costs as “Russian propaganda.” “It is clear that Russian propaganda and disinformation campaigns are present on our territory and some people simply listen to them.” Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala warned.
It is worth noting that it was the European political class which surrendered the continent’s energy lifeline to Moscow. It is not the ordinary Czechs (or Europeans for that matter), but Europe’s ruling elites who had been duped by Russia.
The Czech people, who valiantly fought against Soviet imperialism, have been at the forefront of resisting EU’s authoritarian rule. The country’s outgoing right-wing government—replaced by a pro-EU coalition in the 2021 election—was among the few who rejected Brussels’s demands to accept immigrants based on an EU-wide quota system.
(Raw footage of the demonstration)
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