It is no longer just a couple of shouting men from the streets. Czech neo-Nazis have dressed up nicely, graduated from schools and learnt to say what people want to hear.
And so the administration is going to toughen up: The government promises to meticulously disperse their demonstrations and to quickly punish any violence. Hospodářské noviny got hold of the new, unpublished strategy for fighting extremism. The cabinet was scheduled to discuss it on Monday.
The Radical Workers’ party wanted to establish patrols in Krupka in the Teplice region to watch over the order in the town. They were not invited by local neo-Nazis but by an “ordinary” citizen, Stanislav Holešínský, who dislikes the noise and theft taking place at the residential area inhabited by the Roma.
This is exactly what represents the greatest danger, according to the experts of the Interior Ministry and authors of the new anti-extremist strategy.
“Part of the public might get the impression that the extremists are the only people who will come and help.”
Ministry experts advise the state to help towns identify the dates when there is increased threat of neo-Nazi demonstrations. This is a well-know problem since the extremists attempt to hide the actual purpose of their events even though they time them to mark the birthday of the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
The government therefore plans to put together a calendar of risky days and also a “recipe book” of what the law allows town halls to do.
According to the Supreme Court, town halls should not ban the events that look like peaceful meetings in advance but should wait and disperse them when the extremists start breaking the law.
“That is an important thing. Towns need such a manual,” said František Veleš, expert on extremism from the Czech Helsinki Committee. Police should also take advantage of the new police law as much as possible. Especially the paragraph allowing them to enter licenced businesses, such as pubs, where neo-Nazi concerts take place under the guise of birthday parties. And they should also more thoroughly enforce the law forbidding demonstration participants from covering their faces, thus preventing their identification.
The cabinet, in cooperation with the justice administration, also wants to establish special mobile prison cells, where fast hearings can take place right after the clash between neo-Nazis and the police. “It requires tough measures, police often seem only to accompany the neo-Nazis,” said Cyril Koky, member of the Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs.
In addition to the repressive measures, the government also wants to cooperate with NGOs and experts to try to explain to people why they should not believe the radicals and neo-Nazis and why they should not cooperate with them.
