21 August set to become holiday marking 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia

The Czech government has backed a proposal by some 90 MPs to proclaim 21 August, the date of the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops, a national holiday – Remembrance Day.

The amendment to the law on national holidays will be put to a vote in the lower house of Parliament in the coming days. It backed by MPs spanning all parties, except the Communists.

According to its authors, the invasion of 20 to 21 August 1968 was among the most tragic dates in contemporary Czechoslovak history, for having crushed the Prague Spring reforms.