PRAGUE — A Czech court has banned the far-right Workers’ Party, the first time a political party has been outlawed since the Czech Republic was founded in 1993.
The court described the party as xenophobic, anti-Semitic and homophobic and said it shared the ideology of Hitler
’s Nazi party and maintained links to openly white-supremacist and racist groups.“This ruling needs to be understood as a preventive one, to maintain the constitutional and democratic order in the future,” Judge Vojtech Simicek said in issuing the ruling. Noting that the party held up an uncomfortable mirror to Czech society, he added: “Society must realize that the causes for the Workers’ Party lie deeply within itself. The Workers’ Party is not an external enemy to society, but one of its faces.”
The party’s chairman, Tomas Vandas, said he would appeal. He insisted that the ruling would not stop him or other members from running in elections this May through a party that is closely connected to the dissolved group.
“The Workers’ Party is dead, long live the Workers’ Party,” he shouted into a megaphone to dozens of his followers outside the courtroom. “We are only being banned because we are voicing uncomfortable opinions. But if anybody thinks that this decision is wiping us off the political map, they are wrong.”
The ban against the party, which was instigated by a legal complaint from the government, comes as fears are growing that right-wing parties in Eastern and Central Europe are exploiting the global financial crisis to foment hatred and make scapegoats of minority groups.More
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