Fascist party tricks Prague City Hall, installs racist campaign ads on Wenceslas Square
Prague City Hall feels it has been abused and cheated by the "Freedom and Direct Democracy" (SPD) party, which has installed billboards on Wenceslas Square featuring its controversial election ad depicting a Black immigrant wielding a knife. According to the local authority, the party requested use of the public space just to film a campaign video there. The Czech News Agency (ČTK) was informed of the scandal by Prague City Hall spokesperson Vít Hofman.
The campaign ad shows a dark-skinned man wielding a bloody knife and wearing a bloody shirt with the message “Deficiencies in health care will not be solved by imported ‘surgeons’.” Critics of the installation say the ad is racist, and it is being investigated by police. According to the spokesperson for the Prague 1 Municipal Department, Karolína Šnejdarová, the applicant for the use of the space met all of the technical requirements for doing so and the local authority had no choice but to permit its use of the space. She also said the agency that filed the application had just asked to film there. ČTK is seeking comment from the SPD.
“From the purely procedural perspective, this was supposed to have been about a location agency reserving that public space to park the technology and temporary equipment used to film a video advertisement as part of a campaign for the 2024 elections to the Regional Authorities and the Senate,” Hofman said.
On the basis of the consent of the Prague 1 Municipal Department with the use of the space for that specific purpose, the capital concluded a lease contract with the location agency so they could install the necessary technology and park there. According to news server novinky.cz, the application was filed by the Praha na vlastní oči (“See Prague with Your Own Eyes”) location agency, represented by SPD member Vítězslav Novák.
“Neither the municipal department nor the City of Prague had any information about the content of the filming or the specific political party that would be using the space. In this case, therefore, we feel we have been abused and cheated as part of the raw political struggle ahead of the elections and these campaign advertisements,” Hofman said.
Bureaucrats with the Prague 1 Department of Transportation had to allow the reservation of the space, according to Šnejdarová. “The state administration, or rather the bureaucrat in question, does not have the option of disallowing use of the space if all of the lawful requirements are met. In this case they had been fulfilled, including the concluding of a valid lease issued by the owner of the land, which is also our own supervising body, i.e., the City of Prague,” she said. The application to use the space apparently included the approved lease for the purpose of installing the technology needed to film a campaign video there.
The SPD launched its ad campaign on billboards using AI-generated images with the above-mentioned Black migrant wielding a knife or with images of Romani boys smoking cigarettes. The ROMEA organization, Romani community member Cyril Koky (who is the Central Bohemian Regional Coordinator for National Minorities) and others have filed a report of a crime against the SPD, its chair, Tomio Okamura, the PRO and Tricolor parties, and their marketers over the ad featuring images of Romani boys.
