Prague, Aug 17 (CTK) – New Czech parties and movements try to attract voters by their proclaimed fight against Muslim refugees or possibly against the whole European Union (EU), while they rather promised to fight corruption a few years ago, daily Pravo writes yesterday.
Some of them do not hesitate to use strong words for which they could face prosecution on suspicion of menace and spread of hatred, Pravo adds.
Martin Konvicka, leader of the We Do Not Want Islam in the Czech Republic group and an entomologist by profession, writes on Facebook that “concentration camps for Muslims” should be used if the worst scenario came true. His extremist rhetoric has attracted 146,000 supporters on Facebook, Pravo says.
Such support has inspired him to establish the Bloc against Islam with which he would like to run in the regional election due in the autumn of 2016.
The extremist National Democracy extra-parliamentary party has quite regularly organised demonstrations against the acceptance of refugees and it displays posters with hidden racist messages. Its leader, former journalist Adam B. Bartos, even writes “We do not want Judaism in the Czech Republic” on his Facebook profile, Pravo says.
The opposition Dawn movement headed by war veteran Miroslav Lidinsky focuses on refugees, too. He is considering cooperating with Konvicka. However, unlike Konvicka, Lidinsky would not like to expel all Muslims, but he would only protect the border from the influx of the radical ones.
Tomio Okamura, founder of Dawn and current chairman of the Freedom and Direct Democracy party, has also expressed a negative stance on accepting refugees in the Czech Republic.
The Order of the Nation is seemingly a new movement, but it was established by changing the name of Vision 2014 that “was built on the ruins of the former junior government LIDEM party,” Pravo writes.
“They [refugees] do not come here with the intention to respect the rules and laws of old residents, but they come with the idea of spreading their own rules and habits,” the movement writes on its website.
However, it does not want to ally with Konvicka.
“We do not fight any religion, but we demand an amendment to the law on refugees,” Order of Nation chairman Josef Zickler writes.
The movement targets the voters who consider the homeland, family and nation their priorities, Pravo says, adding that it has attracted 212,000 supporters on Facebook.
However, Pravo writes, there are many other parties promising voters to prevent mass immigration.
Those are the Czech National Social Party, Czech Sovereignty, headed by Jana Volfova, a former Social Democrat (CSSD) member and MP, the Czech Movement for National Unity with its slogan “The Czech Lands to Czechs,” the extremist Workers’ Party of Social Justice (DSSS) and its branch – the Party for Europe, the Party of Direct Democracy State – the Labour Party and National Prosperity. The last one warns not only of immigrants and the EU, but also of tattooed people. The Patriots of the Czech Republic movement, for its part, calls for the country’s leaving the EU on its website, Pravo adds.
Political scientist Jan Bures is of the view that the entities that put an emphasis on refugees as their main topic many not succeed in attracting voters eventually.
“In general, people make up their mind on the basis of domestic issues. Foreign policy plays only a minor role [in their decision-making] and the Czech Republic is minimally afflicted by the refugee wave,” Bures told Pravo.
However, he has criticised all politicians for not trying to present solutions to possible problems with the influx of migrants, Pravo writes.
