00:00A sea of people gathered in this park in Prague on Saturday to protest against the government
00:06of Andrei Babiš. It was the country's largest anti-government demonstration since 2019,
00:13with a turnout of 200,000, according to organisers.
00:17The protesters demanded an end to corruption and authoritarianism, criticising the government
00:23for its close ties to Putin and its refusal to help Ukraine in the war against Russia.
00:30It seems the government has no foreign policy, but it is doing everything to drag us towards
00:36Russia and, together with Hungary and Slovakia, to dend the EU.
00:46Andrei Babiš is accused of sharing the Kremlin's authoritarian tendencies. His government is
00:52moving to tighten the rules around the funding of NGOs from foreign countries, and a bill
00:57is also being drafted to cut funding for public media, in what his opponents describe as
01:02a move to stifle free speech.
01:08It bothers me that the current government is trying to manipulate the free and independent
01:13media. Freedom and democracy are paramount.
01:17I know that the system we have, where we have this freedom, is not a given, and it's important
01:22to me to protect it.
01:25The protest comes after the lower house of parliament rejected a motion to lift Babiš's parliamentary
01:30immunity. He is under fire for using his immunity to avoid trial and a fraud case that allegedly
01:37involves the misuse of $2 million in EU funds.
