Friday’s election of Zdeněk Ondráček caused an extraordinary response across the country. Photo: náměstí Svobody during “Proč? Proto!” political demonstration in May, 2017 by @Brno Daily
Brno, Mar 6 (BD) – Protest demonstrations took place yesterday in many Bohemian and Moravian cities, and Brno was no exception.
According to a Facebook event page and first estimates, several thousand people were going to náměstí Svobody yesterday evening.
“Dear students and citizens of this country, we disagree with the election of Zdeněk Ondráček to the head of the Standing Commission for the monitoring and inspection of the General Inspectorate of Security Corps (GIBS),” Vojtěch Vrabec, organizer of the protest in Brno and student of security and strategic studies wrote on Facebook.
79 of 155 MPs voted for the communist MP Ondráček last Friday, Czech online daily iDnes.cz reported.
Brno#brno #ondracek #obusek #demonstrace
Pozdrav pro @volimANO @AndrejBabis @czKSCM z @brnomycity pic.twitter.com/I30VUzAnlx— Pavla Ruzicka (@PavlaRuzicka) March 5, 2018
“A person who, as a member of the SNB Security Corps, beat protesters during Palach Week in 1989 (and does not regret it) should not hold such a responsible and symbolically significant role as the chair of the parliamentary body overseeing the work of the security forces,” the organizers of the Prague protest explained their reasoning.
A part of the event was the opportunity to express one’s opinion by signing a petition calling on the Chamber of Deputies to organize a new vote on the Chairman of the GIBS.
The document with signatures will be handed over to the Committee on Petitions of the Czech Chamber of Deputies on March 7, the 168th anniversary of the first president T.G. Masaryk’s birthday,
Similar protests were held in other Bohemian and Moravian cities. People also protested in Olomouc, Ostrava, Plzen, Hradec Kralove, České Budějovice, and other cities.
More than 40,000 people indicated on Facebook that they were either going to or interested in attending the protests, iDnes.cz wrote yesterday.
Thousands gathered in #Prague to protest against Ondracek, communist party and ANO movement lead by PM Andrej Babis. pic.twitter.com/z2YU3bIGVW
— Filip Horký (@FilipHorky) March 5, 2018
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