Thousands of Czechs took to the streets again today, this time not in Prague, but in around 400 cities and towns, to support President Petr Pavel, primarily to support him in remaining firmly on guard of democratic institutions as head of state, so that the Czech Republic, with the new government, does not move towards a more authoritarian model, like Slovakia or Hungary.
The demonstrations in Prague were held on February 1, and then the organizer, the citizens' initiative Million Moments for Democracy, called on Czechs to take to the streets across the country today, for which 400 cities and towns gradually signed up.
About 10.000 people gathered in the second largest Czech city, Brno, about two thousand in Olomouc, thousands or hundreds in Ostrava, Plzen, Liberec, but also in very small municipalities and villages in the interior.
"Now it's not just about the president, but the path the Czech Republic will take," said the leader of Million Moments for Democracy, Mikulas Minárz, adding that the petition "We Stand with President Pavel", which was started before the first demonstrations in Prague, has already been signed by almost 770.000 people.
The demonstrations in early February, which gathered around 90.000 Prague residents on Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square, were hastily organized in Prague.
The reason for the scandal was when, at the end of January, the new head of Czech diplomacy, Petr Macinka, sent threatening nighttime text messages to the president's advisor, in which he blackmailed the head of state into appointing the controversial influencer Filip Turek from Macinka's Eurosceptic conservative party, the Motorists, as a minister, otherwise Pavel would be banned from representing the Czech Republic abroad and would be turned into a figure who only lays wreaths.
President Pavel refuses to appoint Turek as a minister, as he is known for his previous racist and xenophobic comments on social media, with multiple pictures of him raising his hand in the Nazi salute "zig heil", threats to a Saudi embassy employee who left a bullet in his car in the garage, disrespect for the law, such as speeding over 250 km/h or illegal construction, and that such a man does not deserve to be a minister.
Since the parliamentary elections on October 3 and 4, and after the appointment of a new government of populist ANO Prime Minister Andrej Babiš with radical nationalists from the Freedom and Direct Democracy party and the Motorists, who are modeled after the MAGA ideology and US President Donald Trump, President Pavel has repeatedly promised the Czechs that he will protect the country's basic democratic institutions and foreign policy orientation towards the West, the European Union and NATO.
The president is the politician in whom Czechs have the most trust – 62 percent according to the latest polls, while Macinka enjoys the trust of only a quarter of citizens, and according to other polls, if elections were held now for his party, she would not even manage to enter parliament.
Messages against Foreign Minister Macinka were often seen on banners today, among other things because of last night's debate at the Munich Security Conference about divisions within the West itself, where Polish Foreign Minister Radoslav Sikorski had to explain to Macinka the most basic details of how the EU works, what it is and how the European Parliament and the European Commission are elected.
Since this morning, Czechs have been having fun on social media with parts of the Macinka debate, where, like a child, as the comments underline, he was unable to match the proverbially ready and eloquent Sikorska, or Hillary Clinton, and the Czech opposition condemned it as the ultimate embarrassment and shame for the Czech Republic with such a foreign minister.
"Fajront Maci", "Peter is not like Peter. Macinka only for himself, and Pavel for everyone and you", "Macinko, you are playing king, and your morals are like from a canal" - these are some of the messages on the banners, and one of the most common was "We want decent politics" or "we want a country where compassion, love and tolerance reign."
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