Hundreds of thousands are expected to rally at the Letna Park in Prague on Sunday to demand the resignation of Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis in what will likely be the biggest public confrontation with the government since the 1989 Velvet Revolution.
Some 400,000 have signed a petition calling on the embattled populist billionaire to step down amid multiple scandals.
The forthcoming protest follows a wave of massive street rallies across the country, following the recent appointment of a new justice minister at a time when prosecutors have to decide whether to indict Babis over alleged fraud involving European Union funds.
The protesters fear the activities of the minister might undermine the independence of the country’s legal system.
“It’s interesting but also it’s a shame that our political situation is in such a state that something like this has to happen,” Benjamin Roll, a member of a student group called Million Moments for Democracy that organizes the protests, said.
“On the other hand, I’m glad that we are succeeding in mobilizing the civil society and that what I see is the most important task of our group,” the 24-year-old student added.
Babis has dismissed the protests as “absolutely silly.”
A preliminary European Union report that leaked in May concluded that Babis might be in a conflict of interest over EU subsidies for his former business empire.
Babis denied wrongdoing and attacked the EU for trying to destabilise the Czech Republic.
Yet the scandals have not harmed popular support for his anti-establishment ANO (YES) movement, which won in a landslide the 2017 parliamentary elections.