Prague, Feb 7 (CTK) – Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka on Sunday condemned the Saturday arson against the Klinika center that helps refugees, now investigated by the police over the suspicion of breach of the peace and damage to property, police spokeswoman Iveta Martinkova has told CTK.
Vladislava Hujova (TOP 09), mayor of the Prague 3 district where the social center is located, has called a security meeting for Monday.
Klinika organised a collection of clothing for refugees.
“Violence is unacceptable in democracy. I condemn the arson attack against the Klinika social center and I firmly believe that the police will soon find its perpetrators,” Sobotka has written on the Facebook.
President Milos Zeman said he was still ready to “fight extremists from both the left and the right by a truthful description of the real situation caused by the migrant crisis.”
“It is absolutely necessary to take the issue of migration from both rightist and leftist extremists,” Zeman’s spokesman Jiri Ovcacek has said on Twitter.
“The former are now celebrating in a perverted fashion how they attacked Klinika, the latter now will be abusing the attack against the opponents of unlimited migration,” Ovcacek said.
A crowd of 200 met in support of Klinika in the park on Sunday. The rally was attended by Human Rights Minister Jiri Dienstbier (Social Democrats, CSSD) and Prague Mayor Adriana Krnacova (ANO).
“We will never be scared, we will continue with what we do,” Klinika representatives said, thanking for the signs of solidarity.
“This is something absolutely unacceptable,” Dienstbier told CTK and Czech Television.
“The hatred spreading through Czech society must be resisted,” he added.
The attack was also denounced by the Jewish Community in Prague.
Its chairman Jan Munk called on all democratically thinking parties and citizens to distance themselves from such signs of intolerance and hatred.
The Prague police are searching for 20 persons. According to the police information, the group threw Molotov cocktails at the center, causing a fire. The firefighters extinguished it within four minutes upon their arrival.
Klinika said it was targeted by neo-Nazis who were throwing stones and signal rockets that lit up a part of the local cafe.
“At the moment, there were over 20 persons in the building. One of them suffered a head injury and was hospitalised. Some people breathed in the smoke,” Klinika said in a press release.
The center stressed the connection between the attack and the Saturday demonstrations against Islam.
“It also calls on the people attending Islamophobic demonstrations to realise what they support in this way,” it added.
Klinika said all the evidence showed that the attack had been perpetrated by the same group that had attacked with cobblestones and clubs a march of sympathisers with refugees called Solidarity Without Borders in a different place in Prague before.
The homeless and drug addicts had occupied Klinika. In December 2014 it was illegally occupied by activists who cleaned it.
Last year, the building was leased to Klinika. The free lease ends this March.
Klinika offers concerts, the teaching of foreign languages, screening of films and lectures.
