The Czechs were late, then in the revolutionary year of 1989. Only in mid-November hundreds of thousands protested in Prague and elsewhere against the communist rulers - at that time the wall had already fallen and in Poland the dissident Tadeusz Mazowiecki soon ruled for half a year as a premier.
The "Velvet Revolution" that followed the protests was then not only non-violent but, above all, fast on the scene: Already on December 10, the President appointed a government of national consent, the communist monopoly power was broken after barely four weeks.
Thirty years later, the protest movement "One Million Moments for Democracy" hopes for a similarly rapid defeat of the government camp today. She called for a big demonstration on Prague's Letna Square on Saturday.
Premier and second richest man in the country: Andrej Babis
The demand: Prime Minister Andrej Babis should resign or at least part with his billionaire holding. However, it seems unlikely that almost as in the summer almost 300,000 Czechs will follow the call. And that's not the weather.
The extra-parliamentary opposition group founded by Prague students articulates a widespread malaise: Babis, the prime minister, is also the second richest man in the country.
Boris Grdanoski / AP
The demonstrators can not harm Premier Babis so far
His company conglomerate Agrofert includes agricultural and chemical companies as well as publishers and newspapers. Although he has passed on Agrofert to a trust company, not only the demonstrators suspect that he continues to represent Agrofert interests in his political office.
What the protest movement lacks is the political catalyst
A report submitted by the EU Commission accuses the holding company of illegally injecting Brussels subsidies. That's why Mikulas Minar, one of the founders of "One Million Moments," says Babis "misuses his political power to support his business." His media power also controls public opinion.
But since the summer conditions have changed. The Prague Public Prosecutor stopped investigating Babis in September. The allegations that he illegally received EU money for his luxury department "Stork Nest" ten years ago are insubstantial.
Also, Babis did not dismantle Czech democracy as feared, as it does in Poland or Hungary. On top of that, the Babis party leads ANO in all opinion polls by a wide margin. Therefore, the journalist Jiri Dienstbier is skeptical whether "One million moments" can build on the successes of the summer. It lacks the movement a political "catalyst", an excitement, such as a concrete case of corruption, which mobilized hundreds of thousands of people.
A president who does not unite: Milos Zeman
Robert Schuster, an analyst at the newspaper "Lidove noviny", believes that the wrath of those who will nevertheless come to the Prague Letna Meadow will be directed not only against Babis, but above all against President Milos Zeman.
The man was once persecuted as a dissident by the Communists, had led the country's Social Democratic Party for several years after the fall of the Wall and was elected head of state in 2012.
Zeman smokes, he likes to drink Bohemian wine, he fumbles: "The Islamic immigrants can not be integrated into European culture, let alone assimilate," he said. Since becoming President, he has advocated closer cooperation between the Czech Republic, communist China and Russia.
REUTERS
Will rapprochement with China: Czech President Milos Zeman
He was particularly outraged by his promise that he would pardon Babis if fraud were still to be recorded: "If it is poked around, the Constitution gives the President the right to be reprieved," he said.
Such slogans confirm the image that many of the protesters have of politics: it is not the competition of ideas for the benefit of the country, but a staged game that only serves the interests of the powerful.
Babis has so far refused to receive representatives of "One Million Moments for Democracy" for a conversation. And Zeman also ignores the protests. At the weekend he wants to go to Bratislava and open a Czech cultural center in the Slovak capital.