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Czech and Slovak protesters shake up political landscape
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| Contributor | IndyGeorgia |
| Last Edited | IndyGeorgia Jul 13, 2019 03:21pm |
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| Category | General |
| Author | Siegfried Mortkowitz |
| News Date | Monday, July 8, 2019 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | PRAGUE — Thirty years after the Velvet Revolution, Czechs and Slovaks are once again using mass street protests to shake up the political landscape.
Although today's protesters say they are inspired by the 1989 uprising that brought down communism in what was then still Czechoslovakia, theirs is a different fight: They see themselves as trying to defend the current political system — liberal democracy — rather than overthrow it.
The demonstrators say they are trying to fight back against creeping authoritarianism as well as widespread cronyism and corruption. If they succeed, they could reshape the image of governments in Central and Eastern Europe, which have been accused by rights organizations and EU officials of backsliding on democratic values.
But success is far from certain. Both in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the protesters are facing off against deeply entrenched political interests and leaders with substantial popular support.
And although they have plenty in common, the protest movements in the two countries are also quite distinct. |
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