Lany, Central Bohemia, June 17 (CTK) – Some 20 people with banners and red trunks protested against the Czech Republic’s political course under President Milos Zeman and PM Andrej Babis outside the Lany chateau where both politicians met today.
Babis brought the list of nominations for ministers by the possible coalition partners, his ANO and the Social Democrats (CSSD), in his second government to Zeman.
The Million Moments for Democracy association wanted to give a petition to Babis that had been signed by more than 250,000 people to date.
However, Babis’s car did not pass by the demonstrators, but he used another gate to the chateau.
“As of today, 258,500 people have signed the petition for a decent prime minister,” association chairman Mikulas Minar told reporters.
Babis told reporters at a press briefing in Pruhonice later that he would not like the demonstrators to shout at him. This is also why he moved his meeting with journalists from Lany to Pruhonice.
“Since there were demonstrators there who are always the same. I have no need to hear someone shouting dirty words at me like these people who are pursuing me everywhere,” he told reporters.
The protesters say they do not want Babis, with the aid of the Communists (KSCM), who should support his second cabinet, to bring the Czech Republic to the state before the fall of the Communist regime in 1989.
Some of the people had red trunks, hinting at the incident of the Ztohoven hoax group, whose members, disguised as chimney sweepers, hung out giant red boxer shorts on the roof of Prague Castle, the presidential seat, instead of the presidential flag in September 2015, in protest against Zeman’s behaviour in office.
The said this was “the proper flag of a man who is not ashamed of anything.” They particularly criticised Zeman for siding with dictatorial regimes, such as China and Russia, and his vulgar language.
Zeman burnt the original red trunks in the Prague Castle garden with journalists present on Thursday.
The protesters also carried out banners with anti-Babis and anti-Zeman slogans, for instance, alluding to Babis’s alleged collaboration with the StB Communist secret police.
Babis arrived in Lany today to inform the president about the nominations for ministers in the possible ANO-CSSD coalition government.
The Social Democrats insist on the nomination of CSSD MEP Miroslav Poche, whom Zeman and the Communists opposed, for foreign minister. His name stirred up a conflict between the potential coalition partners on Saturday.
Moreover, Zeman announced via his spokesman Jiri Ovcacek that he would never appoint Poche as minister.
The KSCM said today it would not support a government with Poche in it.