January 2023

Kristína Šefčíková, Prague Security Studies Institute

 

The politically sleepy summer ended abruptly on Saturday (4 September), with a large anti-government on Wenceslas Square in the center of the capital Prague. The underlying theme of the demonstration, which counted some 70 thousand participants, were increasing prices and the current government’s inability to solve them’ protesters called for for the government's resignation and early elections. However, the list of demands presented by organizers from the initiative "Czech Republic First" (Česká Republika na 1. místě) was broader. The manifesto published on their website included a grab bag of demands including lowering prices of gas by direct contracts with suppliers – namely Russia – and "liberation from submission" to the EU, WHO and UN along with military neutrality. The most controversial demand was the termination of the "planned dilution of the nation", which in practice means preventing Ukrainian refugees from staying on Czech territory.  

IRI’s Beacon project has established an initiative of 6 partners from Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria to monitor how is the European Green Deal perceived in their countries, in which context local actors discuss the topics related to this policy package and what are the prevailing narratives spread by political actors, mainstream media as well as sources know for spreading of disinformation.

December 14, 2021

Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) researchers Maja Bjeloš and Luka Šterić analyzed how media in Serbia reported about Chinese, Russian and EU help during the pandemics.