Big protests against the Czech government have started sooner than anticipated. Mollifying them will not be easy. From Respekt.

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Transitions note: Fury over skyrocketing energy prices, blamed on the Czech coalition government, drew a mix of far-right and far-left demonstrators to a big rally in central Prague on 3 September, where they also demanded cutting the country’s ties to Western military and economic institutions.

Commentators who do not want to seem as if they are too-conspicuous fans of this administration, as well as those who are not fans of it all, predicted that the Czech Republic would experience demonstrations this year. The cabinet’s mistakes and Putin shutting off the gas would spark protests in the winter, maybe even violence, they wrote. It’s just the beginning of September, but Wenceslas Square was almost full of demonstrators on Saturday.

A diverse range of radicals, whether from parties not represented in parliament or those on its absolute fringe, managed to get 50,000 people into the streets – some reports say as many as 70,000. We witnessed scenes similar to those that the Million Moments for Democracy movement against then-Prime Minister Andrej Babis enacted on that same square in 2019.

This time, however, the protests are being led by openly quasi-fascist politicians, by the leaders of the disinformation scene, by the friends of the Night Wolves motorcycle gang and other Putinesque outfits, and by minor figures from the Tricolor or the Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) parties. Their demands appear to have been dictated by advisers from the self-declared Donbas republics: The liberation of Czech domestic industry from its dependence on international companies, military neutrality, arranging for the cheap supply of natural gas from Russia – but first and foremost, the government’s resignation.   

The protests, it seems, have come early and are being led by people toeing a line that is sharply pro-Kremlin – which is to say aggressive, murderous, and warlike. The high turnout can also be linked to the situation since the COVID-19 protests, where the disinformation scene (as this part of society is being simplistically referred to) is prepared to protest and to push for a Czech Republic that follows its idea of Putinism.

From their demands it is apparent that the administration will be unable to make any concessions to these people even if their protests persist. For industry to be liberated from its so-called dependence on foreigners there would have to be a communist-style nationalization, a departure from NATO and the immediate endangerment of the country is what is meant by “neutrality,” and there is no such thing as “cheap” natural gas from Russia. It simply does not exist. Putin does not set his price in dollars, but in currency of a completely different sort.

There can be no doubt that different kinds of people made it to Wenceslas Square this time, including those who justifiably feel threatened by the crisis in the energy market and by their descent into poverty. The administration is able to make concessions to such people and if it cares about people in adversity, then it should do so. 

There is no reason yet to rush to the conclusion that these pressures do not matter, though. The intertwining of the economy and energy production in the EU requires a common solution with the other member states, one that is being designed right now [with the Czech Republic in a leading role as current holder of the European Council presidency – Transitions]. Only after the consequences of that solution and the administration’s subsequent steps become clear will we see whether the Petr Fiala cabinet deserves to be tolerated or whether it should be replaced. That said, there probably will not be anything better available to replace it with.

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Marek Svehla is the opinion editor for the Czech weekly Respekt, where this commentary originally appeared. Republished by permission.

Translated by Gwendolyn Albert.