Prague, Feb 25 (CTK) – About 1000 people met in Prague’s central Wenceslas Square on Saturday to demonstrate against the compulsory e-registration of sales and what they called Czech politicians’ forcible way of governing.
The demonstration has been staged by the Association of entrepreneurs and managers (APM), a district branch of the Chamber of Commerce and the Merry Czechia Without EET group.
Passed by parliament last year, the EET law has been introduced in several phases since December 2016, with the second phase applying to retail and wholesale businesses starting as of March 1.
APM chairman Radomil Babek called the EET an instrument of state willfulness that serves to spy on entrepreneurs.
In his speech, Babek referred to the Communist coup of February 1948. “Sixty-nine years ago, armed paramilitary units of the communist party were marching here. They seized power and started raging. History tends to repeat, but no one definitely wants this. The government, however, behaves like haughty big shots and tough bolsheviks,” Babek said.
Entrepreneur Ludek Sorm called on the protesters to go on strike alert.
The demonstration was also addressed by Vaclav Klaus junior (Civic Democrats, ODS), son of former president Vaclav Klaus, who supported small tradespeople and the self-employed in their protest against the EET burden.
The rally started with a minute of silence observed in commemoration of victims of the communist regime.
The participants were carrying banners reading “Haughty big shots are here again?” or “We are not Babis’s firm, we are citizens,” in an allusion to the EET law’s initiator, Finance Minister Andrej Babis, whose ANO movement, nevertheless, is the most popular party and a favourite in the October general election.
They chanted slogans such as “Babis out” and “Babis into a dustbin.”
The centre-left government expects the EET system to reduce tax evasion and make conditions equal for businesses.
The right-wing opposition has criticised EET.
