Interior minister to look into protests against mandatory vaccinations

Interior Minister Vít Rakušan said on Monday that he wanted to hold a survey among members of the police force to find out how many of them refused to get the Covid vacine and why. The statement came in the wake of news that over 3,200 members of the country’s security forces – police officers, firefighters and soldiers – had signed a petition against compulsory vaccination for people in high-risk professions.

Police President Jan Švejdar, who announced late last year that he had decided to leave the force after 35 years of service, criticized the former government’s decision to make the Covid vacinne mandatory for police officers, saying the force could lose up to 10,000 professionals as a result. Švejdar told reporters that he was leaving because he did not want to hinder negotiations between the Ministry of the Interior and the police.