Czech Protesters Strip To Waist Amid Vaccine Mandate Dispute

PRAGUE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th January, 2022) Hundreds of Czech anti-vaccine protesters defied cold weather on Tuesday to rally in central Prague, with some stripping to the waist to remind the health minister of a pledge to scrap the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination plan.

The government of center-right leader Petr Fiala came to office last month on a promise to overturn a decree on vaccine mandates for some professions and people over 60. It was signed into law in early December by Prime Minister Andrej Babis, whose government was replaced shortly afterward.

While still an opposition lawmaker, newly appointed Health Minister Vlastimil Valek said that he would be the first to strip down and chain himself to the parliament's doors if the decree on mandatory full vaccination went ahead as planned in March.

Some 500 people gathered in Malostranske Square to demand that the new government deliver on its promise to abandon the plan. They stayed in the square for nearly an hour before moving on to a nearby street where Czech farmers were protesting EU agricultural policies outside a government building.