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Thousands of demonstrators rallied in Prague, Czech Republic, on Thursday evening demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Andrej Babis over a fraud scandal, Reuters reports.
Babis faces charges that he illegally transferred a two million euro or $2.27 million subsidy from the European Union to his family members, including his son and two of his other children.
The Prime Minister has been under increasing pressure this week after his son told an online news portal that he was deliberately kept in Crimea to avoid being questioned in the case.
Babis denies that, saying his son, who lives in Switzerland and has schizophrenia, was there voluntarily. The man who had been taking care of his son also denied any wrongdoing.
Babis’ coalition government will face a confidence vote in parliament’s lower house over the scandal. The house speaker said the vote would likely take place on Nov. 23.
The parliament’s upper house today asked Babis to step down until the investigation is completed.
People also protested against the country’s president , Milos Zeman, on Wednesday, after he attacked the media.
As he was sworn in for his second five-year term last week, Zeman used his inauguration speech to accuse public broadcaster Czech Television and other journalists of favouritism and bias.
Zeman, who has been in office since 2013, blasted the press for criticising his anti-migrant and pro-Russia rhetoric.
Demonstrators waved flags, lit up their mobile phones and jingled their keys, a gesture used during the country’s communist era, when it came to symbolize the unlocking of doors, and was used as a way of telling communists to leave.
The square was previously the site of huge demonstrations against what was then Czechoslovakia’s communist government.
Around four thousand people attended the rally, and on Thursday, students from 200 schools across the country gathered for further protests.
It comes after Slovakia’s Interior Minister resigned following the biggest street protests the country has seen in decades over the death of investigative journalist, Jan Kuciak.
Kuciak was investigating fraud cases involving politically-connected businessmen in Slovakia, which split from the Czech Republic 25 years ago.
Zeman has previously referred to journalists as “manure” and “hyenas” and joked with Russian President Vladimir Putin that some journalists at an event needed to be “liquidated.”
