Huge crowds rally in Prague against rule by political extremists
25 March 2026
An estimated crowd of 250,000 rallied in protest on the Letná Plain in Prague, angered at the corruption, authoritarian drift, and the influence of “extremist and populist parties” in government. Mikuláš Minář, the lead organiser of the Million Moments for Democracy association, which called the rally on March 21, declared "We're here to clearly stand against dragging our country onto the path of Slovakia and Hungary."
As reported by ROMEA, actor Ivan Trojan who addressed the rally, one of the largest since the Velvet Revolution, warned that Czech policy is now being largely determined by extremist and populist parties, who are in charge of the key ministries of defence, foreign affairs, the environment, and culture. Trojan also condemned the growing aggressiveness in politics, “which cannot be accepted as the new norm.”
The protest was called after the lower house of the Czech parliament earlier rejected a motion to lift Prime Minister Babiš's immunity in a €2 million EU subsidy fraud case. The vote by deputies from the ruling ANO party and its coalition partners, the far-right SPD and the Motorists for Themselves party, protects Babiš from prosecution until 2029. The MPs also refused to allow the prosecution of lower house Speaker Tomio Okamura, leader of the Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) movement, on charges of inciting hatred. According to the Million Moments, these moves divide the nation into two categories: "the ordinary people and the untouchables."
Tomio Okamura: a ‘hateful racist’ and the greatest threat to Czech democracy?
While the gift of Okamura’s immunity has been overshadowed by that granted to the supreme untouchable, PM Babiš, it is Okamura, according to politician Josef Tokár, who poses the greatest danger to democracy in the Czech Republic and to its citizens. Notwithstanding, his unabashed track record as a racist and a xenophobe, Okamura was elected Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament after the October 2025 election.
From a protocol perspective, he is now the third-highest constitutional official, one above the Prime Minister. In an opinion piece published in ROMEA, Tokár stated, “Neither Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš nor the controversial lawmaker Filip Turek come anywhere close to the danger Okamura poses in this role.”
In 2014, a headline in the Prague Monitor read “Tomio Okamura: the most dangerous man in the Czech Republic?”. Wondering if Okamura had become the ‘acceptable face of racism’ in the country, the article recounted that the former popcorn-seller suggested that Czech Roma should be sent to India to live in a newly-created homeland. In August 2015, in a Facebook post, Okamura spoke of the so-called “steep increase in the Romani population” as a major ‘security risk’ facing the Czech Republic.
In January 2018, Okamura provoked further controversy with remarks that belittled and relativised the Romani experience in the Nazi Holocaust. Okamura said that he believed the concentration camp for Roma at Lety u Písku had not been fenced and that the people there had been able to come and go freely. In its report for the second quarter of 2019 the Interior Ministry categorized Okamura’s party as a “xenophobically-attuned entity”, one that has “unequivocally overtaken the traditional extremist parties.”
In August 2025, ROMEA reported that the prosecutor filed charges against Okamura and his SPD with incitement to hatred over its campaign adverts for the 2024 European, local and Senate elections. The Chamber of Deputies had already stripped the SPD chair of immunity from prosecution once before in February 2025.
In one of the adverts targeting the Roma, the AI generated image depicted two Romani boys with cigarettes in their mouths and the text read: “They say we should go to school, but our folks couldn’t care less…” and “Welfare just for families whose children attend school!”
Okamura published a commentary along with the ad on social media including the following allegations: “Our inadaptable fellow citizens are an unaddressed, growing problem in our country. They are characterized by poor relationships with their neighbors and insufficient hygiene, a lack of interest in education and work, high criminality and abuse of welfare.”
The critical difference between now and 2014 – when the Prague Monitor asked whether Okamura was “the most dangerous man in the Czech Republic?” – is that this time round, Okamura wields real institutional power. He is no longer just the bellicose, loudmouth leader of a protest party, no more a mere bigoted opposition MP, as he was before the October 2025 elections. Tokár maintains that, as Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Okamura has secured a legitimacy he never had before. Emboldened by his recently-secured immunity from criminal prosecution, it’s open season for the normalisation of hate speech, open populism, and the trivialisation of historical crimes: “His presence as the head of the Chamber of Deputies is the worst possible outcome.”
These concerns are shared by many others, not least the 250,000 protestors that took to the streets to defend Czech democracy. Commenting on the election of Okamura, the former politician and renowned economist, Ivan Pilip said, “In my view, his nomination is the worst event since 1989. He is a hateful racist…” Following a controversial New Year speech by Okamura, President Petr Pavel expressed his misgivings: “Statements by the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, the third-highest constitutional official, are causing concern not only among our citizens but also abroad, among our allies and partners.”
These days, the best protectors of Czech democracy are its citizens, who have taken to the streets and massed in unprecedented numbers to voice their anger, dissent, and distaste for political extremism. The question is how long it will take for this opportunistic, governing coalition of grifters, criminals and racists to come undone; and what it’s going to take to restore the kind of democracy every citizen of the Czech Republic justly deserves.
