Prague, April 12 (CTK) – Three-member vigilante patrols with physically strong men have been watching order on some Slovak trains since Monday, the Czech paper Pravo writes yesterday, quoting Marian Kotleba, leader of the extreme rightist Kotleba-People’s Party Our Slovakia (LSNS), as saying.
“The government is unable to protect decent people. We will have to be involved in the affair unless this changes,” said Kotleba, regional governor in Central Slovakia.
The success of the LSNS that gained 8 percent of the vote and 14 mandates in the 150-seat parliament was the biggest surprise of the March election in Slovakia.
In its manifesto, the LSNS promised to “make order among the parasites in [Romany] shanty towns,” rejected migrants and insisted on Slovakia’s leaving the “criminal NATO pact” and on calling a referendum on leaving the EU.
The regional authority has asked the Slovak state railway company to give it the list of the riskiest trains and it will deploy the patrols there, Pravo writes.
The patrol members buy train tickets. If there is some incident in a train, they are ready to detain the trespasser and to wait until the police arrive, it adds.
“We are also asking the police to raise the number of patrols on trains,” Kotleba is quoted as saying.
The LSNS has reacted to a case from last week when a boy, 17, brutally attacked a girl, 21 on a train.
He choked her and beat her face with his fists. He then stole her purse and cell phone on the train driving from Nove Zamky, south Slovakia, to Zvolen, central Slovakia, Pravo writes.
The young woman only announced the assault at the terminus, it adds.
Kotleba said the train patrols were the first step towards the introduction of a militia, as suggested by his party’s manifesto, Pravo writes.
It should be deployed where the police fail, it adds.
For the purpose, the party may use the state contribution for the work of political parties, Pravo writes.
In the March election, the LSNS gained over 200,000 votes, which entitles it to the state contribution of five million euros, it adds.
However, Slovak law does not allow the establishment of any para-military organisation without a parliamentary consent, Pravo writes.
On the other hand, if the militia members are unarmed, they may officially operate as a security service, it adds.
