Highlights
– Hundreds of far-right protesters clash with police in November 2008
– Far-right group plans large protest in Prague for December 6
– Anti-immigrant violence likely to continue in the near-term
On November 17, 2008, approximately 600 far-right supporters of the group, Workers’ Party (Dělnická strana DS), arrived in the northern town of Litvinov to protest against the city’s immigrant community. Blaming poverty, unemployment, and crime on the country’s Roma, or gypsies, the protesters came equipped with handguns, knives, bricks, pitchforks, Molotov cocktails and eventually marched toward a Roma neighborhood. A total of 1,500 people participated in the march, drawing support from local residents.
However, approximately 1,000 riot police met the crowd head on where violent clashes erupted. More than a dozen people suffered serious injuries as police used tear gas and a water cannon to suppress the surging crowd. Waiting at the Roma neighborhood, roughly 300 immigrant men also gathered to defend their community with sticks and knives.
The DS supporters gathered on November 17, 2008 to mark a national holiday when students held demonstrations in 1989 against communist rule, the last day communist police violently fought against protesters in Prague. The march was the third of its kind in two months organized by the DS and is regarded as the most violent demonstration since protesters clashed with police at the 2000 annual summit of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Prague.
Spurned on by the global economic downturn, anti-immigrant sentiment appears to be on the rise in many parts of Europe. Italy has seen numerous outbreaks of anti-Roma violence, while families in Hungary have been the target of numerous xenophobic attacks in recent months as well. In eastern Europe, where most of the EU’s Roma population resides, anti-immigrant and xenophobic attacks will likely continue to climb in the near to mid-term.
Who is the DS?
Founded in 2003, the DS is headed by Tomas Vandas and currently holds at least 300 members. The group advocates the removal of any government support for immigrants, withdrawal from the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and opposes Czech involvement in hosting a US missile defense system. In an October 17 statement, DS stated it had “zero tolerance towards the post-Communist political system” (Source).
Although the group rejects any ties to neo-Nazi groups, media reports indicate that supporters of the two most prominent neo-Nazi groups in the country, the National Resistence and the Autonomous Nationalists, commonly appear at DS organized events. The group’s emblem, a toothed wheel with its DS logo, has also been listed as an extremist sign by police as it resembles the symbol of a Nazi organization that replaced all independent unions in 1933.
While the group failed to garner significant support in the country’s 2004 regional elections, gaining just 3,000 votes, 2008 saw a sharp increase in voter support with over 26,000 votes tallied in its favor. Vandas expects this momentum to continue in 2009, claiming the group could gain 2 to 3 percent of the vote (Source). However, this estimate seems unlikely as radical right-wing parties have ultimately failed to gain legitimacy in the national political spotlight in the past decade.
Raising the Stakes in December
Earlier in 2008, the Czech Republic’s Interior Ministry officially labeled the DS an extremist group. More recently, the Czech Civic Democrats (ODS) government, led by the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) and the Greens (SZ), has officially submitted a proposal to the Supreme Administrative Court to abolish the DS, claiming the group has violated several laws.
In response to the proposed ban, the DS has officially announced to stage a protest on December 6, 2008 near the ODS congress in the Prague-Vysocany neighborhood. The protest will likely draw 500 supporters, and according to the DS, it will be “the largest and most radical resistance to the government in the country after 1989” (Source). In addition to the planned protest for December 6, the DS has vowed to organize another march in Litvinov on December 13. The protest comes despite a recent municipal decision to ban similar anti-Romany protests scheduled for December 29.
Outlook
With the court likely to approve the ban, Vandas declared that the party would regroup under another political party name. This would allow the group to maintain its core supporters for the near-term, yet would likely damage its ability to sustain a recognizable political platform in the long-term.
In the near-term, DS supporters will likely conduct additional disruptive and potentially violent demonstrations, where police and foreigners will be likely targets. However, with the Czech Republic set to take over the EU presidency from France on January 1, 2009, the government will likely seek to crush any further violent far-right resistance to avoid a political embarrassment. As a result, an intensified crack down on far-right extremist groups is likely to follow in the near-term to mid-term.
