The third parade of ten thousand people broke out in the Czech : Russia is not the enemy
Local time On October 28, local time, large-scale anti-government demonstrations broke out in the Czech capital Prague again. Due to the high inflation caused by soaring energy prices in Europe, the daily lives of Czech people have been seriously affected. Czech people took to the streets, demanding that the current Czech government step down and hold general elections in advance, and demanding negotiations with Russia on the supply of natural gas . According to statistics from the Czech government, tens of thousands of people participated in the demonstration. Since September this year, three protests against the current government have erupted in the Czech Republic. According to media reports, the people shouted the slogan "First in the Czech Republic" and demanded that the government achieve national independence and autonomy and withdrew from EU and NATO .
At the scene of the protest, some people held up the placard "Russia is not our enemy, the warlike government is" and called on the government to immediately start negotiations with Russia to resume imports of natural gas from Russia, reduce the impact of energy prices and high inflation. Europe has long relied heavily on natural gas imported from Russia as energy. Natural gas prices in the European energy market have begun to soar since Russia announced its suspension of supply of natural gas to the EU.
Are there enough natural gas reserves? But I can't afford it anymore!
Since EU countries began to choose to import liquefied natural gas from other countries, but the cost is completely incomparable to Russian pipeline natural gas, which is of high quality and low price. Liquefied natural gas imported from major natural gas reserve countries such as the United States needs to be transported by sea, and it takes a long time to transport. Due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, the cost of shipping is quite high. The natural gas produced by Russian oil and gas fields can be transported to EU countries through the "North Stream" natural gas pipeline, which is short and has low cost.
However, the natural gas reserves of European countries are currently very complete, and the storage capacity rate has reached 90.5%. Recently, the natural gas futures price has also experienced a cliff-like decline, and the situation seems to be changing. However, this is mainly because Europe has begun to actively seek to purchase liquefied natural gas since March, resulting in a "oversupply" situation in the market, and futures prices will fall. However, the high inflation situation in Europe is difficult to change, after all, futures prices do not represent the decline in energy prices. The current energy prices in the Czech Republic are still at high levels, and the cost of living for the people is getting higher and higher. The Czech government's policies on dealing with energy issues have not been widely recognized, and the heavy cost of living has also caused strong dissatisfaction among some people.
And on the day of the Czech independence anniversary, Czech Interior Minister Rakushan posted on social media, saying, "We know who our friends are, we bleed for our freedom, and we also know who our enemies are." The picture after the article is Russian President Putin , which is obviously indicating that Russia is the enemy of the Czech Republic. During the Cold War , Czechoslovakia was a member of the Warsaw Treaty and stood on the same front as the Soviet Union. After the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, Czechoslovakia soon ushered in a regime change, and a few years later it split into two countries: Czech Republic and Slovakia and . Like most original Warsaw Pact countries, in order to gain the recognition of Western world , the Czech Republic quickly turned to the embrace of the Western camp.
Considering that the Soviet Union had intervened in Czechoslovakia's " Prague Spring " in history, the relationship between the Czech Republic and Russia has always been tense. As a member of NATO and EU member, the Czech Republic firmly stands with the Western camp in its policy towards Russia. After Russia launched a "special military operation", the Czech Republic actively responded to the decisions of the EU and NATO, suspended the import of energy products from Russia and provided military assistance to Ukraine. The Czech Republic provided Ukraine with heavy equipment such as T-72 main battle tank and BVP-1 infantry fighting vehicles, and this assistance is considered to be top in NATO.In April this year, the Czech Republic expelled 18 Russian diplomats on the grounds that Russian diplomats "may be related to the 2014 Czech Republic Arsenal bombing." From these actions, it is not difficult to see that the relationship between the Czech Republic and Russia is already as powerful as fire.
The best ones are for Ukraine, we only have sweaters
Czech Republic is willing to act as a "pawn" and was soon affected by the European energy crisis. According to statistics, the inflation rate in the Czech Republic rose by 18% year-on-year in September, and the increase in living costs caused by high inflation began to spread in the Czech Republic. Not only that, the Czech government has also announced the acceptance of refugees from Ukraine. Since the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, about 450,000 Ukrainian citizens have obtained the right to residency in the Czech Republic. On the one hand, the lives of the Czech people are seriously affected by high inflation, and on the other hand, the Czech Republic actively accepts Ukrainian refugees. This quickly aroused dissatisfaction among the Czech people. "The best ones were given to Ukraine, and only two sweaters were left for us!" became the most famous slogan in the protests and demonstrations in recent months.
From this recent demonstration in the Czech Republic, we can see some people holding slogans "The Czech Republic is preferred". The people hope that the Czech government can put its own people's livelihood issues first, rather than show such great enthusiasm in accepting Ukrainian refugees and aiding Ukraine. For the Czech people, in order to respond to the call of the Western camp, the Czech government blindly joined the opposition to Russia, without considering the consequences of this move at all. Similar to other EU countries' performance in this round of energy crisis , the Czech government has proved that it is not ready to say "goodbye" to Russian Energy with facts.
And for the current Czech government, the voices of the Czech people did not attract their attention. Earlier, in response to the protesters' calls, Fiara said that the protesters only think about their own interests and do not take the national interests of the Czech Republic to heart. He also said that the protests were initiated by pro-Russian forces and did not represent the core interests of the Czech Republic. This kind of shirking responsibility naturally aroused strong dissatisfaction among the people. According to the composition of the protest groups, there are both right-wing Czech political groups and left-wing parties. Although the political stances of both sides are completely opposite, they still took to the streets in the face of the high inflation crisis currently facing the Czech Republic.
Czech people also called for the "warlike" Fiara government to step down and demanded withdrawal from NATO and the EU. The Czech government claims on the surface that all this is for the national interests of the Czech Republic, but the people have already seen it thoroughly. It is just a cover, but in fact it is guided by the will of the Western camp. The Czech people themselves are still the most affected in the Czech Republic. For them, the difficulties of life brought about by high inflation are far from over.
