{"id":134420,"date":"2025-04-20T14:11:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T14:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/anti-trump-protesters-in-the-us-might-look-to-the-czech-republic-we-are-an-example-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-04-20T14:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T14:11:11","slug":"anti-trump-protesters-in-the-us-might-look-to-the-czech-republic-we-are-an-example-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/anti-trump-protesters-in-the-us-might-look-to-the-czech-republic-we-are-an-example-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Trump protesters in the US might look to the Czech Republic: \u2018We are an example\u2019 – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Massive, sustained protests led to the 2021 downfall of billionaire oligarch Andrej Babi\u0161, dubbed \u2018the Czech Trump\u2019
A former cold war communist dictatorship and component part of the Habsburg empire seems an unlikely source of hope for Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s opponents.
One such country, Hungary, is often cited as the model for Trump\u2019s no-holds-barred authoritarian assault on US institutions. Viktor Orb\u00e1n, the central European country\u2019s prime minister, has been a guest at the president\u2019s Mar-a-Lago estate and has won Trump\u2019s praise for transforming Hungary into an \u201cilliberal state\u201d that extols \u201ctraditional\u201d values \u2013 and for projecting the kind of \u201cstrongman\u201d persona the president admires.
Now in his fourth consecutive term, Orb\u00e1n and his Fidesz party have captured state institutions, tamed the media and been successfully re-elected, despite periodic waves of anti-government mass protests<\/a> \u2013 the most recent this week<\/a> against an attempt to ban the annual Pride march.
It seems an ominous portent for Trump critics who took part Saturday in a second weekend of mass demonstrations, organized across 50 states by the 50501 group<\/a>, following the \u201cHands Off\u201d rallies staged in 1,000 locations<\/a> across the US on 5 April.
Yet the contrasting political fate of one of Hungary\u2019s neighbours with similar historical antecedents may provide a glimmer of hope for the prospects of mass protest laying foundations for a successful onslaught against Trump, leading to victory at the ballot box.
The Czech Republic<\/a> \u2013 once part of what was cold war-era Czechoslovakia and, coincidentally, birthplace of Trump\u2019s first wife, Ivana \u2013 is a possible blueprint for how street protest can bloom into a unified electoral strategy that eventually unseats a billionaire leader with autocratic aspirations and apparent scorn for democracy.
In 2018, a popular movement, Million Moments for Democracy, began organizing rallies in the Czech capital, Prague, and other cities to protest the anti-democratic tendencies of the country\u2019s prime minister, Andrej Babi\u0161, who had been labelled \u201cthe Czech Trump<\/a>\u201d.
Babi\u0161, a billionaire oligarch who was the country\u2019s second-richest person, had taken office as head of a coalition that relied on support from the remnants of the Czech communist party after his populist ANO (Action for Dissatisfied Citizens) party won the previous year\u2019s election.
Opponents accused Babi\u0161 \u2013 whose sprawling Agrofert conglomerate controlled vast segments of the Czech economy and two of the country\u2019s biggest newspapers \u2013 of fraud and multiple conflicts of interest, while abusing power to further enrich himself. There were also complaints about past ties \u2013 upheld in court, despite Babi\u0161\u2019s denials \u2013 to the communist secret police<\/a>, the StB, for which he reportedly acted as an informer.
Early protests attracted crowds of up to 20,000, but within months attendances had skyrocketed as rallies were staged more regularly, always climaxing in calls for his resignation<\/a>. By June 2019 \u2013 three months after Babi\u0161 was hosted by Trump at the White House <\/a>in a visit that seemed to boost his international standing \u2013 Prague saw its biggest political protest since the 1989 fall of communism<\/a>, with more than 250,000 turning out in opposition to the prime minister and his close ally, the elderly pro-Russian president, Milo\u0161 Zeman.
An even greater number turned up in November 2019, ostensibly to mark the 30th anniversary of communism\u2019s collapse \u2013 which had itself been triggered by mass protests. The prime minister stood firm, and as the Covid-19 virus forced the country into prolonged lockdown, protests diminished and Babi\u0161\u2019s position seemed more assured, despite widespread discontent over his handling of the pandemic.
Yet in 2021 parliamentary elections, Babi\u0161 and his lavishly funded party were defeated by a five-party coalition<\/a> whose ideological differences were superseded by their hostility toward the prime minister.
The demonstrations, despite the lost momentum caused by Covid and Babi\u0161\u2019s stubborn refusal to resign even as police lodged criminal fraud charges, had worked by converting discontent into votes at the ballot box.
\u201cWe certainly had some role in the election results,\u201d said Benjamin Roll, Million Moments for Democracy\u2019s spokesperson and deputy leader at the time. \u201cI believe we in the Czech Republic are an example of how long-term civic-society activities can bring, or help bring, political change.
\u201cThose protests gave us all the feeling we have the power, that we were not alone, and we can do something. I think this emotion is really crucial.\u201d
It is a potentially decisive factor amid swirling debate about how to respond to Trump as he has smashed long-established norms and assailed institutions at breakneck speed since his inauguration on 20 January.
While the leftwing Vermont senator, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive New York representative, have attracted vast crowds on their Fighting Oligarchy road tour that seems to emphasize the value of popular dissent, other Democrats have adopted a less confrontational approach, with some opting not to fight Trump at every turn.
The party\u2019s leader in the senate, Chuck Schumer, drew fire from many on his own side for leading a group of fellow Democratic senators in voting for a six-month Republican funding bill last month, averting a government shutdown.
The move sharpened criticism that congressional Democrats had reacted too passively to Trump\u2019s authoritarian power grabs.
At the same time, the party\u2019s exclusion from power in the White House and on Capitol Hill has prompted questions over the effectiveness of mass protests. The failure of demonstrations to translate into electoral defeat for authoritarian-type leaders in some countries \u2013 Hungary, Turkey and Serbia are recently cited examples \u2013 has fed such doubts.
However, Steven Levitsky, a politics professor at Harvard University and a specialist on authoritarian threats to democracy, said dismissing mass rallies as futile \u2013 which he called \u201ca new conventional wisdom\u201d after years of thinking they guaranteed a dictator\u2019s downfall \u2013 was misplaced.
\u201cMass protest is less likely to bring down a government in a place where elections are a viable channel, meaning where it is still a democracy or near-democracy,\u201d he said. \u201cProtest is not going to lead to Donald Trump\u2019s resignation, or Orb\u00e1n\u2019s, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not relevant. Protest<\/a> can weaken the government, can shape public opinion and the media framing and discourse, which is very important.\u201d
At the \u201cHands Off\u201d rally in Washington DC on 5 April, which drew tens of thousands<\/a> of people, participants said one aim was to embolden reticent voters and Trump critics who might be intimidated by the president\u2019s blustering tactics.
Ji\u0159\u00ed Pehe, a Czech political analyst who is the director of New York University in Prague, said that message had its echoes in the Czech precedent.
\u201cIt was this overall, this strategy of waking people up and telling them: \u2018Look, you have agency. You can change things. You are not just passive observers of what\u2019s going on, but you can change things, but you have to be active,\u2019\u201d he said.
But allowing millions of dissatisfied Americans simply to vent their frustrations would not be enough, Pehe warned. \u201cIf the Czech Republic is to be an example, these demonstrations need to happen again and again across the United States and they need to have one or two strong messages. There has to be a very strong message towards the political class because only it can actually change things. And in this case, there should be pressure on the Democrats, saying: \u2018Look, it\u2019s your task to stop Donald Trump.\u2019\u201d
Speaking to the Guardian at the 5 April Washington rally, Jamie Raskin, a Democratic representative from Maryland who is the party\u2019s top member of the House judiciary committee, said \u201ca popular resistance strategy\u201d featuring protests could only work in harness with \u201can effective legislative strategy\u201d, a tall order since the Republicans control both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
\u201cUltimately, we\u2019re going to have to win the elections next year, and when we take back the House and the Senate, we will be back in the driver\u2019s seat,\u201d he said.
That aim evokes another lesson from the Czech example, observers say: the need for the Democrats to take their cue from the demonstrators and put aside their ideological differences for the sake of unity.
\u201cWhat you\u2019ve seen in the Czech Republic is a broad array of political forces coming together to form a pro-democracy coalition and I think that\u2019s instructive for the US,\u201d said Norm Eisen, a former US ambassador to Prague and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, who called for a \u201cbig tent\u201d approach encompassing anti-Trump Republicans.
\u201cThey were for putting aside particular differences on partisan issues, on ideology. That is one of the critical ingredients for success, and I believe we are seeing that here. In these deportation disputes, we filed a brief at the supreme court by more than three dozen conservatives, [who served in] every Republican presidential administration, from Nixon to Trump 1, and I was the lawyer on that, together with a senior justice department official from the Bush administration.<\/strong>\u201d
Levitsky said the US protests had assumed outsize importance given the failure of other institutions and pillars of the establishment \u2013 including major CEOs, law firms, the Catholic church and, until this week, universities – to mount a stand since Trump took office.
\u201cThis emerging protest movement, and the size of the crowds at the Bernie Sanders and AOC events, is going to compel Democratic politicians to become more active, follow their base rather than so as not to lose it,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat the protest movement can do is contribute to an erosion of Trump\u2019s popularity, and embolden opposition politicians and probably contribute to an electoral outcome in a couple years.
\u201cIn that sense, these guys are not wasting their time. I think it\u2019s a very, very important step in getting the opposition off the sidelines.\u201d
Back in Prague, Roll \u2013 recalling the intoxication of the anti-Babi\u0161 rallies \u2013 had advice for US demonstrators: stay positive and, whatever Trump\u2019s provocations, avoid hateful rhetoric \u2013 something he fears the US\u2019s two-party system makes hard to avoid.
\u201cThe division in the United States is really dangerous because you see the other side as the enemy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s crucial to remain non-violent and hopeful. Talking in front of lots of people, we realised you have to be careful about your language because if you are too negative or hateful, it can defeat your purpose. Remember that the other side are people. They\u2019re your brothers and sisters.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Massive, sustained protests led to the 2021 downfall of billionaire oligarch Andrej Babi\u0161, dubbed \u2018the Czech Trump\u2019A former cold war communist dictatorship and component part of the Habsburg empire seems an unlikely source of hope for Donald Trump\u2019s opponents.One such country, Hungary, is often cited as the model for Trump\u2019s no-holds-barred authoritarian assault on US […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134421,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}