Czech ultra-right oppose vaccinations against COVID-19 with antisemitic caricature

News server Forum24.cz reports that the youth organization of the ultra-right Workers Social Justice Party (DSSS) has tweeted an antisemitic caricature as part of its effort to deter people from undegoing vaccination against COVID-19. “We will not allow ourselves to be vaccinated against COVID-19! Those globalizing bastards can blackmail us all they like!” the group has tweeted along with an image that is unequivocally an anti-Jewish caricature.  

The group has previously released posters exploiting graphic design elements of Nazi propaganda. For example, on their Facebook page, beneath the message “The world is still in order in our group. Join us!” (posted 12 June 2020) they use the image of a young man in a black t-shirt that is copied from a 1936 Nazi poster. 

Other promotional items for the group feature a blonde girl with braids reminiscent of the blonde girls in Nazi propaganda posters; the “Workers Youth” (DM) is a society of people between the ages of 15 and 35 who are sympathizers of the DSSS or directly contribute to party activity. The party and the youth organization share the same registered address.

The Czech Interior Ministry categorizes the DSSS among the extreme right parties in the country. The predecessor to the DSSS, the “Workers’ Party” (DS) was registered in 2003.

In 2010 the Czech Supreme Administrative Court agreed with a Government motion to dissolve the DS. The court found the party to be continuing the national socialism of Adolf Hitler through its use of racist subtext and xenophobic elements.

DS representatives then registered the DSSS party. Paradoxically, it is exactly the DSSS, categorized as extremist by the Interior Ministry under the leadership of Jan Hamáček, chair of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), that is in government at the local level in the town of Duchcov along with the ČSSD, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, and the “We Live in Duchov” movement.