Page 48 - bne_October 2021_20211004

48 I Central Europe bne October 2021
Million Moments Chairman Benjamin Roll in Prague's Wenceslas Square.
Benjamin Roll, Czech protest leader
Robert Anderson in Prague
The Czech pro-democracy movement Million Moments would have to consider “more radical ways of protesting” if Prime Minister Andrej Babis retains power in what will be crucial elections next month, Chairman Benjamin Roll told bne IntelliNews in an interview.
Million Moments brought a quarter
of a million people out to peacefully protest against the billionaire populist premier in June 2019 – the biggest Czech demonstration since the fall
of Communism 30 years before – but has struggled to maintain momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now Roll believes its moment will come again at the October 8-9 general election.
After some ambivalence in the past about working with the opposition parties and an abortive attempt by its former leader to form his own party, the
protest movement has now thrown in its lot with the two opposition coalitions.
“I think it is very important to co-operate with the opposition,” Roll says, adding that Million Moments had pushed for the opposition to unite and had played
a part in making it happen.
The protest movement has endorsed both opposition coalitions – the Pirate party together with the STAN mayors’ party, as well as the SPOLU centre-right grouping – and its thousand volunteers are campaigning to raise voter awareness of the importance of the election, which Roll says will have wider regional repercussions.
Roll fears that if Babis is able to stay in power, perhaps with the support of ally President Milos Zeman and extreme left and rightwing parties, this would severely damage Czech democracy and
could drive many voters to lose interest in politics. “I’m afraid a lot of people will be resigned if Andrej Babis wins. I’m afraid of this,” Roll says.
Current opinion polls show that Babis’ ANO party has regained a clear lead, though he would not be able to form
a majority government unless he can break up the SPOLU coalition, probably by luring away the rightwing ODS party.
“The worst scenario would be that despite all the scandals there is not
a political reaction,” the beaming 26-year-old theology student told bne IntelliNews at his movement’s office in Prague's gritty Zizkov neighbourhood. “The politicians will see they can do whatever they want. If those parties win a majority in parliament we can be sure the process of state capture would get even faster and the extremists will gain.”