Czech Republic: Ultra-right was alone at the Janov housing estate this year

Czech neo-Nazi activist Jiří Šlégr announced to authorities earlier this year that on Sunday, 17 November 2013, in honor of the state holiday officially called the Day of the Fight for Freedom and Democracy, an assembly that he called a "March against Crime and Police Brutality" would be held in the town of Litvínov to commemorate the events of 2008 there, when ultra-right demonstrators and police engaged in bloody clashes at the Janov housing estate. This year’s march was planned to begin at the train station and to head toward Janov, stopping at a particular traffic circle to light candles at the places where some of those clashes occurred and then ending in front of a local elementary school after some speeches. 

The events of 2008 included an assault on human rights activist Ondřej Cakl, who was monitoring the demonstration, by a group of ultra-right demonstrators who surrounded him (for video footage of that incident, see http://www.romea.cz/romeatv/index.php?detail=BKxEtgZRxw8&id=detail&source=t&vid=BKxEtgZRxw8). This past March the courts handed down a sentence of 300 hours of community service work against only one of the attackers involved.

As anticipated, about 10 of Šlégr’s followers made it to Litvínov for the demonstration yesterday. During previous such assemblies, these people have successfully manipulated ordinary locals to loudly shout anti-Romani, racist slogans in the streets and then, once things were stirred up, have withdrawn, leaving the mob they created to face riot police who did their best to defend public order so that everyone’s health and property would remain intact.

Yesterday the small group of right-wing extremists discovered they no longer have the support of ordinary people from the Litvínov area to hide behind and that they themselves might have to take full responsibility for any illegal behavior committed in front of the police who were monitoring the situation. The demonstrators abandoned their planned march on the Janov housing estate and ended their assembly in front of the train station by lighting candles in memory of a deceased fellow neo-Nazi.