Czech Republic: Neo-Nazis to gather 1 May in Ústí, civic initiatives protecting ghettos

Civic initiatives have announced that they have reserved the streets leading to the socially excluded localities in the Czech town of Ústí nad Labem for 1 May. The initiatives want to prevent local occupants from being targeted by the neo-Nazis who are planning to march through the center of town that same day.  

Miroslav Brož of the Konexe association has issued the announcement. The extremist Workers’ Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti – DSSS) announced a 1 May assembly on the centrally-located Mírové Square, to be followed by a march through the town. 

According to the records on the assembly, organizers are counting on as many as 500 people attending. The Facebook pages announcing the event have announced there will be international participation in it by representatives of the German ultra-right party the NPD and the fascist Slovak Solidarity (Slovenská pospolitost – SP) party of Slovakia. 

The followers of DSSS leader Tomáš Vandas also invited neo-Nazis from the Right Sector group in Ukraine to speak at the 1 May event, but their representatives ultimately decided not to attend due to the tense situation in Ukraine. "As the first on the list of our guests from abroad for this year’s event we wanted to introduce the Right Sector of Ukraine, but unfortunately in the end they sent their regrets and won’t be coming due to their intensive preparations for the May presidential elections in Ukraine. The Right Sector thanks us for the support we have provided from our own country and sends its greetings to everyone who will participate," the ultra-right extremists have posted to their Facebook page. 

Practically all the other spaces in the town center will be occupied in Ústí nad Labem on 1 May, as other political parties are also planning their own traditional events. The DSSS march has been announced as leading past several streets that lead to the largest ghetto in town, that of the Předlice quarter.   

"We have announced our reservation of those streets so the radicals cannot access them. We have also reserved the center of Předlice itself, where the largest number of socially vulnerable people are living," said Miroslav Brož. 

Konexe is planning to provide support to locals in the ghetto on 1 May. "We will have a children’s program to distract them from what is going on. A clergyman and psychologist will also be on the scene for the adults," Brož said.

Police said they cannot yet estimate how many radicals will be coming to Ústí nad Labem. "We are monitoring the situation and evaluating it, and we will take the corresponding measures. For tactical reasons, however, we will not give precise details as to what those will be," Ústí Regional Police spokesperson Veronika Hyšplerová said.    

The commander of the local police is also counting on beefing up the number of officers on patrol. "We will be prepared to collaborate with the state police so that public order is not disrupted," Deputy Director Jan Novotný of the Ústí nad Labem municipal police said. 

Should the speakers at the 1 May gathering break the law, the authorities are able to disperse the assembly. "We will have an official at the scene who will have that authority," said Jan Tvrdík (Civic Democratic Party – ODS), the mayor of the town’s central district, where the assemblies will be taking place.

Ústí nad Labem experienced its most recent right-wing radical event in April 2009, when about 400 ultra-right radicals from the Czech Republic, Germany and Slovakia marched through the town. For a transcript of Romea.cz’s online reporting from that day, click here.