Czech capital sees demonstration in support of Trump and against COVID-19 pandemic suppression measures by the same extremists who march against the Roma
Dozens of people assembled yesterday afternoon for a bizarre demonstration in Prague to protest against the Czech Government’s measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, to express their support for outgoing US President Donald Trump, to cast doubt on the outcome of the American presidential elections, and to cast doubt on the circumstances around the death of former Slovak Police President Milan Lučanský. Their march proceeded down Wenceslas Square to the American Embassy in the Lesser Quarter and ended in front of the Embassy of Slovakia in the Bubeneč neighborhood.
The roughly 50 people who assembled first listened to more than an hour of speeches on Wenceslas Square in which the speakers criticized the Government restrictions introduced against the COVID-19 pandemic, in which they criticized vaccinations against the disease, and in which some doubted whether the novel coronavirus even exists. Several demonstrators wore yellow Stars of David like those used by the Nazis to label Jews, onto which they had inscribed the word “Unvaccinated”.
Comparisons of the current measures against the novel coronavirus to the situation during the Second World War have also been made in Germany, where Anetta Kahane, head of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, which advocated against antisemitism, racism and right-wing extremism, has called such comparisons a dangerous abuse of the memory of the Holocaust. The chair of the TOP 09 party, Markéta Adamová Pekarová, criticized the use of the Jewish star at the demonstration in Prague.
“I don’t understand what is going through the mind of a person who wears such a Star of David to a demonstration. I took my sister, who is 13 years younger than me, to the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial to show her how far human hatred can go. These ‘heroes’ should be made to go there, and whoever doesn’t understand it at that place is beyond help,” the TOP 09 chair posted to Twitter.
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Among those attending the demonstration were longtime veterans of protests against the Czech Republic receiving refugees and against the religion of Islam, and the symbols of groups and organizations that demonstrate against Romani people could also be seen. The protest was attended by sympathizers of the Association for the Republic – The Republican Party of Czechoslovakia (SPR-RSČ), chaired by Miroslav Sládek, who in his role as an MP made the infamous remark in the 1990s that “Cikáni should be held criminally liable from birth, because in practice that is already their biggest crime.”
Others in attendance were adherents of the Workers Social Justice Party (DSSS), whose youth organization recently used an antisemitic caricature in their own battle against the vaccination effort to impede the novel coronavirus. The DSSS supporters wrapped themselves in Confederate flags, a symbol of racism and slavery.
Jiří Černohorský, who has fought against the Czech Republic receiving refugees and against the religion of Islam, was one of those demonstrating, as was Jana Volfová, who abandoned her usual badge featuring a crossed-out mosque for one with a crossed-out syringe. The demonstrators also expressed support for outgoing US President Donald Trump, alleging that he lost last November’s election because the results have been falsified.
Protesters also expressed doubt that the recent death in custody of former Slovak Police President Lučanský was by suicide. The event was not the first such demonstration to criticize Government measures against the novel coronavirus and to demand their abolition.
The march left Wenceslas Square at about 15:30, led by a horse-drawn carriage. Carrying the flags of the Czech Republic and the United States of America, the demonstrators crossed the Old Town Square and the Charles Bridge into the Lesser Quarter and proceeded from there to Bubeneč.
