Young people protest ČSSD-KSČM alliance

Prague, March 14 (CTK) - Some 20 young people connected with a red ribbon into a human chain passed through the centre of Prague from the seat of Social Democrats (CSSD) to the seat of Communists (KSCM) in protest against cooperation betwen the two parties.

The event was organised by the New Civic Society (NOS) initiative that describes itself as a platform for discussion on active citizenship and democracy.

The participants were awaited by fewer than ten KSCM supporters at the party's headquarters with a red flag with a hammer and sickle and with Lenin's portrait.

The protesters carried posters reading "We do not want the KSCM in government" and "Something is hanging up in the air."

"We, being normal citizens, want to say we are rejecting the experiment in which the strongest leftist party wants to try on citizens to find out how they will behave if it starts cooperating with Communists," an organiser from NOS said.

yesterday's event was to be a message sent to the CSSD election congress that starts in Ostrava, north Moravia, on Friday, and support to that part of the CSSD that rejects cooperation with the KSCM.

The CSSD that won last autumn's elections in nine of 13 regions closed coalitions with the KSCM in some of them and the KSCM even has one regional governor. Students have held protest events against Communists sitting on some regional self-rule bodies.