Prague hosts 'Million Moments' rally against PM Babiš ahead of Senate vote

On Monday, September 28 — Czech Statehood Day — the Million Moments movement held a large march on Prague's Old Town Square. Participants in the roughly ninety-minute event demanded that the ruling parties be denied a majority in the Senate and urged people to turn out for the upcoming elections.

Warning ahead of the Senate elections

Organizers did not give a turnout figure, but the square was largely full, though people could still move through it. Municipal elections and the first round of the Senate elections will take place on October 9 and 10. Leaflets handed out at the rally described the Senate as a "wall" protecting against the concentration of power in the hands of the ruling majority. "Even your vote can help stop Andrej Babiš (ANO) and his government of national decay from winning a majority in the Senate," the leaflet read. Organizers reminded the crowd that Senate races are often decided by just a few dozen votes, and that two years of oversight over the government will cost a voter only two minutes at the ballot box.

Babiš reminded of the Agrofert holding

Movement chairman Mikuláš Minář said the Senate remains one of the last state institutions not part of the Agrofert holding. Earlier, the European Commission wrote to the Czech authorities stating that the measures taken to address Babiš's potential conflict of interest are insufficient. The prime minister has already said that since it was transferred into a trust, Agrofert no longer belongs to him, and that the Commission's position does not concern him.

"We will not give up, and we will do everything we can to make sure that, by 2029 at the latest, Andrej Babiš ends up the same way as his close friend Viktor Orbán in Hungary," Minář said, recalling Orbán's recent election defeat. According to him, the next demonstration will take place no later than November 17. Speakers also criticized Babiš's handling of his conflict of interest, the government's plans to scrap licence-fee funding for public television and radio, and cabinet members' attacks on the president, the media, the judiciary and active citizens. The government's security policy also came under fire, including the dissolution of the strategic communications unit at the Government Office.

Warning about the threat from Russia

Tomáš Kopečný, the former government envoy for Ukraine's reconstruction under Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS), warned that Russian aggression against European countries, including Czechia, will keep intensifying. "We will see more attacks, more explosions, and possibly casualties," he said. In his view, the key is not to be afraid: the current cabinet clearly is not doing enough to strengthen the country's resilience and security, but no government can save people on its own, since society's strength lies in thousands of decentralized voices and initiatives.

Flags, a tribute to Havel, and the balance of power in the Senate

Some participants brought Czech state flags to the square — the rally coincided with Czech Statehood Day — while Ukrainian and EU flags were also visible. Banners read "Enough of Babiš's red-and-brown debt panopticon!", "Czech Television and Radio aren't toys — they exist for us," "The demonstrations won't stop until the Babiš government falls," and "Two chambers, more oversight." The rally was also timed to mark the 90th anniversary of the birth of former Czechoslovak and Czech president Václav Havel, which falls on October 5: the Million Moments movement named the rally "Václav, we will preserve freedom!"

Senate elections are held every two years: in October, voters will fill a third of the upper house's 81 seats, thereby determining which coalition holds a majority there. For the former four-party coalition and its movements, four seats would be enough — or just two, given that SEN21's two mandates are not up for re-election this year. For the ruling ANO and SPD to secure a majority on their own, they would need to win in all 27 districts; the Motorists movement, like SPD, has no representatives in the Senate and did not field candidates in this election. STAN is defending the most seats — 11 — while the ODS and TOP09 factions each hold nine mandates. KDU-ČSL and the joint SEN21–Pirates faction could each lose three seats. Of ANO's current 15 Senate seats, only one is at stake.

Source: seznamzpravy.cz