Czech president under fire for skipping Prague Spring commemoration

Czech President Miloš Zeman was roundly criticized for refusing to take part in Tuesday’s commemoration of the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet-led forces. The chairman of the center-right TOP 09 party, Jiří Pospíšil, accused the president of neglecting his constitutional duties by not taking part in events marking such an important moment in the country’s history.

An estimated 250,000 Warsaw Pact troops and more than 6,000 tanks invaded Czechoslovakia in the early hours of August 21, 1968, to suppress the political liberalization that came to be known as the Prague Spring. The invasion and subsequent occupation resulted in the deaths of 137 Czechoslovak civilians.

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Source: POLITICO