Slovakia: Ultra-right calls for "asocials" to be sent to labor camps, police investigating

The “People’s Party Our Slovakia” (Kotleba-Lidová strana Naše Slovensko, or ĽSNS), which is run by the fascist Marian Kotleba, is once again being investigated by police in Slovakia. Two members of the extremist party have posted a campaign advertisement referencing a concentration camp along with hateful slogans to social media.

The advertisement was published by Marián Magát and Marián Mišú, candidates for the ultra-right group, to their Facebook profiles. It initially read: “We’ll turn around the asocials and the political thieves: We’ll send them to the labor camps!”

Both candidates included photographs of prisoners at work, probably in a Nazi concentration camp or a Soviet gulag, in their posts. After receiving criticism, they adjusted the text to say that they want to send “asocials” and “thieves” on a “working holiday”.

Magát and Mišún are known for their sympathies for the wartime president of the fascist Slovak State, Jozef Tiso, and for the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Police officers began an active investigation of the posts after they were reported.

Once the investigation began, representatives of the ultra-right party removed the material from the Internet. “Police specialists will be investigating the content of that banner and researching whether a felony was committed,” Slovak Police President Tibor Gašpar told the Nový Čas publication.

The vice-chair of the ĽSNS, Ján Kecskés, has rejected the idea that the posts were meant to be an expression of sympathy for ideologies suppressing human rights. “We reject any association of the political party Kotleba – People’s Party Our Slovakia with fascism and the idea of labor camps,” he said.