‘Prague doesn’t want Nazis’: Hundreds protest far-right migration conference

Several hundred protesters gathered outside Hotel Step in Prague’s Vysočany district on Friday evening to oppose a conference bringing together far-right politicians from Central Europe.

The event, titled What Comes After the EU? Migration or Remigration?, was organized at the invitation of Libor Vondráček, leader of the Svobodní party.

Demonstrators assembled under the slogan “Prague doesn’t want Nazis,” with dozens of police officers deployed to monitor public order and safety. Shortly before 7 p.m., police said a group had surrounded the hotel while expressing their views.

The conference was originally scheduled for Kaiserštejn Palace on Malostranské náměstí but took place at Hotel Step in Malletova Street.

Its stated agenda includes the future of European migration policy in the event of a fundamental transformation or dissolution of the European Union.

Participants include Thomas Frölich, an MEP from Germany’s AfD who sits with the Europe of Sovereign Nations group, and Slovak MEP Milan Mazurek of the Republika movement.

Mazurek has previously been convicted over xenophobic remarks.

Outside the hotel, protesters carried banners including “Black and white, let’s unite.” Some also waved Palestinian flags.

“Prague police have been monitoring a notified gathering in Prague 9 since this afternoon,” police said in an update on X.

“During the gathering, a group of people surrounded the hotel and is now expressing its opinions. Officers at the scene are overseeing public order and the safety of everyone present.”

The police statement did not announce arrests or describe a confrontation.

The protest was called by the platform Praha je feministická, which campaigns on women’s and LGBTQ rights.

Its organizers argued that “remigration” was being used as a more acceptable-sounding label for an exclusionary vision of a “white Europe.”

In their statement, they said advocates of the policy across Europe had discussed removing not only migrants but also people with European citizenship and families established in Europe for generations.

The platform characterized such proposals as expulsion based on ethnicity. That description reflects the protest organizers’ criticism of the agenda.

Eliška Landová, speaking for the platform, said the decision to demonstrate also reflected concerns about attempts to restrict human rights and the arguments used to justify those policies.

She rejected suggestions that remigration was a means of protecting women, arguing that their safety could be addressed through other policies.

The gathering remained underway in the early-evening account provided by ČTK, with police continuing to monitor the area around the hotel.