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Hundreds of demonstrators whistled and jeered at Czech President Miloš Zeman throughout his speech marking the events of 25 years ago at Albertov in Prague, where student demonstrators began their march in 1989 to mark international students' day and to commemorate Jan Opletal and other students murdered by the Nazis 50 years earlier. Demonstrators on Monday, some holding placards protesting against Mr Zeman and his predecessor Václav Klaus, even threw items - prompting the president's security detail to open umbrellas. Mr Zeman, who was fully drowned out by the noise, said he was unafraid of them as he was unafraid 25 years ago. The crowd only grew quiet when German President Gauck, as well as presidents from the Visegrad 4, spoke shortly afterwards.

As president, Miloš Zeman has courted controversy on a number of occasions, most recently suggesting that the Velvet Revolution was triggered primarily by a false report of the death of a student, rather than by the brutality of the attack in Prague against students by the communist riot police. His comments were ridiculed by some, including a well-known historian, who also experienced the crackdown firsthand. Human Rights minister Jiří Dienstbier told Czech TV that the president's assessment was "a lie" as in the past Mr Zeman himself had written about the brutality of the crackdown on Národní Street.

Thousands also gathered to demonstrate against President Zeman in the city centre earlier in the day, holding up 'red cards' (as in football) calling for him to resign.

President Miloš Zeman on Monday welcomed German President Joachim Gauck at Prague Castle, together the heads of state from Slovakia, Hungary and Poland (part of the Visegrad 4). Together, the leaders marked the anniversary of the fall of communism in Europe 25 years ago. Official ceremonies marking the turbulent events which saw the fall of totalitarian regimes behind the Iron Curtain in 1989 began roughly five months ago in Poland. On Monday afternoon, the heads-of-state will take part in a debate at Prague's Charles University. Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski is also secheduled to lay a wreath at Václav Havel's grave and will meet with expatriates at the Polish Embassy.

Politicians and others have been marking the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution since Monday morning, laying wreathes and flowers and lighting candles at the memorial to student demonstrators in the centre of Prague. A long line of visitors formed, some wearing pins with the likeness of the late Václav Havel, the playwright, former dissident, and leading figure of the Velvet Revolution, who was elected Czechoslovakia's first post-communist president.

Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka was one of the first politicians on Monday to lay flowers; he said that 1989 represented above all a positive and key moment in Czechoslovak history, although he criticised economic steps taken during the so-called transformation period which followed. The prime minister later flew with a Czech delegation to Washington, where a bust of Václav Havel is to be unveiled in a special ceremony at the United States Capitol building. Mr Havel gave a famous speech to members of the US Congress in 1990.

Czechs this Monday are marking the 25th anniversary of the start of the Velvet Revolution which toppled the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. Dozens of events and happenings are scheduled around the country, including the Czech capital, specifically on Wenceslas Square (where mass demonstrations in 1989 hastened the fall of the regime) and the avenue Narodní třída, the site of a memorial where police brutally cracked down on student demonstrators a quarter-century ago on November 17, 1989. The Velvet Revolution paved the way for Czechoslovakia to return within the fold of democratic European countries after more than 40 years of communist rule.

Developments following the fall of communism in then Czechoslovakia have failed the expectations of most Czechs and Slovaks, according to a survey for Czech and Slovak public broadcasters. In the Czech Republic, 54 percent of those polled said they were disappointed while in Slovakia, their share reached 70 percent. Difficult social conditions were given as the most frequent complaint in both countries. However, the survey’s authors said the results did not suggest people would be unhappy about the change but rather that their expectations had been greater.

Gary Keith Griffin is currently in Prague presenting his new Czech-language movie Listopad (November), which explores the Velvet Revolution from the perspective of young participants in the street demonstrations of that time. Griffin also had personal experience to draw on, having himself been in the city as those historic events were unfolding at the end of 1989. When we met on Národní St., where the revolution began on November 17 that year, I asked the Oscar-winning cameraman what he had found when he arrived in Prague on an NBC news

The Communist Party says that the Velvet Revolution was a “wasted opportunity”. In a statement released on Friday the Communists said it was not possible to regard the changes after 1989 as a success, adding that today the Czech Republic is run by a propertied oligarchy that pays no heed to the interests of citizens. The party said Czechs had greater social certainty under the previous system. It criticized the division of Czechoslovakia without a referendum and the fact the Czech Republic had joined NATO, which it described as aggressive. The Communist Party of Bohemian and Moravia is one of the few parliamentary parties in the region to retain the word communist in its title.

Countless events across the Czech Republic – and indeed across the globe – are taking place over the next four days to mark the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. These are scheduled in key places associated with the Revolution, such as Wenceslas Square or Národní třída in Prague, as well as in locations such as Washington D.C. and London.

A relay reading of Michael Žantovksý’s new biography of Václav Havel gets underway on Friday afternoon at the Lucerna Passage in central Prague. The reading from Havel is part of a Festival of Freedom, which has been put together to mark the 25th anniversary of the start of the Velvet Revolution. Most of those taking part are friends of the late Mr. Havel, who spearheaded the political changes at the end of 1989 and was president for 13 years. Mr. Žantovksý, who is now Czech ambassador to the UK, was his spokesman and advisor.

Czech and Slovak political leaders are to attend a ceremony in Prague marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of communism. The ceremony, which is to be attended by Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and the heads of the Czech and Slovak parliaments, will take place in the one-time Czechoslovak Federal Parliament building at the top of Wenceslas Square. Participants will hear addresses from political leaders and former dissidents and honour the memory of the first post-communist speaker of the Czechoslovak Federal Assembly and Prague Spring legend Alexander Dubcek who died in a car accident in 1992.