Czech extremism report for 2023: Tensions between some Roma and some Ukrainians, anti-system movement dominates, most hate attacks targeted Romani people
In the Czech Republic, the extremist scene continues to be dominated by the anti-system movement, representatives of which do not believe in the democratic system, frequently express admiration for the regime in Russia, and have no respect for the state and its institutions. The movement has absolutely overshadowed extremist, populist, xenophobic entities as they are traditionally understood.
Those are the findings of the Czech Interior Ministry’s report on extremism for 2023, which was approved by the Government on Tuesday. The scene was also influenced by disagreements between some members of the Romani and the Ukrainian communities and by reactions to the terrorist attack committed by the Palestinian Hamas movement in Israel in the autumn.
“During the period under review, relations became tense between part of the Ukrainian and the Romani communities. The cause of the tensions were actual or fabricated situational conflicts which resonated through social media. Some figures attempted to purposely fan the flames of this tension,” the Interior Ministry report says.
The anti-system movement has erased extremists in the classical sense
According to the Interior Ministry, last year a trend continued that had started during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many new figures appeared in the online space in particular who won new adherents. This anti-system movement, according to the report, represents a “melting pot” of citizens who are not satisfied with various economic, political or social events.
“Formally, the movement uses the label of patriotism, but in reality it is more about absorbing elements who are convenient for the hybrid activities of the Kremlin regime,” the Interior Ministry says. In 2023, the movement deliberately exploited the subjects of the energy and migration crises, price increases, Russian aggression towards Ukraine and even the conflict in the Middle East, according to the ministry.
However, the weakness of the movement is its “fragmented nature” as well as its absence of a political program, according to the Interior Ministry. Despite this, some activists have managed to gain the trust of their fellow citizens with the aid of conspiracy theories and disinformation, the ministry says.
The idea has also been spread in the movement that the Czech Republic is not even a legitimate state. According to the report, adherents of the anti-system movement are concentrating on coercive actions against the authorities or on ignoring official calls on the public to either do certain things or refrain from doing them.
“The culmination of their activities was their excessive behavior in the courts, when such persons tried to blockade specific trials of defendants whom they depicted as the victims of an illegitimate system,” the Interior Ministry says. Middle-aged and older people with existential fears who are experiencing feelings of alienation are becoming concentrated in the anti-system movement as well as in extremist and xenophobic entities, according to the Interior Ministry.
Because such persons have been consuming disinformation for a longer time, they are unable to critically evaluate various conspiracy theories and their adapted or directly fictitious contents. They tend to believe them unreservedly, the ministry reports.
Most hate attacks were against Romani people
During 2023, racially motivated and xenophobic speech was perpetrated by persons without any clear ties to the right-wing extremist environment. As is traditional, this speech targeted immigrants, the Roma, and other minorities.
Displays of hatred targeting Ukrainians or their property also continued. Hatred of Romani people was the motivation for 25 crimes in 2023, while 18 crimes had an antisemitic subtext, according to the report.
There were 13 crimes targeting the LGBT+ community, according to the statistics. Overall, police investigated 181 crimes with an extremist subtext last year, 32 more than the year before.
Police apprehended 98 people on that basis. There has also been a trend of adopting antisemitic conspiracy theories, especially after the Hamas movement’s terrorist attack in Israel on 7 October.
Disinformation media outlets spread hatred
According to the report, the quasi-media scene spread hateful prejudices, both anti-immigrant and Islamophobic ones as well as antisemitic, anti-Ukrainian and homophobic ones. The Interior Ministry found that this scene frames xenophobic content in accordance with Kremlin narratives.
Such media outlets are undermining the liberal democratic system, objecting to the Government and to the state being anchored in the democratic international community, according to the Interior Ministry. Conspiracy theories, sometimes including an antisemitic or anti-Ukrainian subtext, also appeared in association with the tragic shooting at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts (FF UK), the ministry reports.
After the shooting, bias crime rose, not just against FF UK students and teachers, but generally against people with university educations, according to the report. There is also a potential risk posed by people who do not conform to extremist stereotypes as traditionally conceived, the report notes.
This risk is posed by people who are quite young and who frequently suffer from some form of mental disorder, sexual deprivation, or social isolation. According to the Interior Ministry, they are rather loosely connected to the extremist scene and a specific ideology is, for them, more an “accessory” to their process of self-radicalization.
Neo-Nazis as traditionally understood no longer have any influence
Right-wing entities as traditionally understood are no longer relevant political players, according to the Interior Ministry. “The older veterans of the neo-Nazi movement have not publicly shown themselves in any distinct way. Essentially, they have been realizing their ideology just within the framework of their own subculture. They have a low mobilization potential which is additionally limited by individuals’ alcoholism or use of other addictive substances,” the report relates.
“The Workers’ Youth [Dělnická mládež], through its Internet messaging, has espoused neo-Nazism more and more obviously. National Democracy [Národní demokracie] and the Workers’ Social Justice Party [Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti] have absolutely lost their relevance. They can be described as a minor fragment in the mosaic of groups whose speech is in accordance with the hybrid activities of the Kremlin regime,” the Interior Ministry reports.
Anarchists, according to the report, have been struggling with the public’s lack of interest in them. Orthodox communists have been reflecting inside their own social bubble on different historical anniversaries or selected events either abroad or in the Czech Republic.
According to the Interior Ministry, paramilitary groups have not developed public activities of any greater significance. The Muslim community remains mostly moderate and has not reflected any calls from those advocating extremist forms of Islam, the ministry reports.
However, as in past years, cases of individual Islamic radicalization have been recorded, chiefly in the online environment, according to the report. Minors and young adults are the group most at risk of this, the Interior Ministry says.
Such radicalization does not just involve practicing Muslims, but also converts and persons who never inclined to any kind of faith in the past, the ministry reports.
DOCUMENT
