Human rights minister defends European values at pro-refugees demonstration in Prague.
A demonstration expressing support for refugees was held on Prague’s Náměstí Míru on Tuesday. The event entitled “This Country Belongs to All – Refugees Welcome” was organised by the anti-hate speech group Proti projevům nenávisti and drew hundreds of people. Among the speakers was human rights minister Jiří Dienstbier, who said it was important to stand up for the European values Czechs had professed during 1989’s Velvet Revolution. Demonstrators later marched to the Albertov area of the city, where they were separated from an event organised by Bloc Against Islam by hundreds of riot police.
At the same time, “Migration opponents should not be dubbed extremists”, President Zeman told supporters
In a speech at an event organised in his support by Bloc Against Islam, the Czech president, Miloš Zeman, said opponents of migration should not be dubbed “extremists, xenophobes, Islamophobes, racists or fascists”. Speaking on the anniversary of the start of the Velvet Revolution in 1989 and the execution and mass arrest of Czech students in 1939, Mr. Zeman told a crowd of supporters at Prague’s Albertov that nobody would dictate to the Czech people what to do. He said he was the president of the nation but not the president of the media, who he accused of “massaging” the migration crisis.
Source : Radio Praha
