For the stocch opponents of Communism in the Czech Republic, this is a pleasant end of a very long story. After the so -called velvet revolution of the country, which began in 1989 and reached there to the end of the communist rule, the opponents of the ideology demanded that the communists be treated the same as the German Nazis were done. After more than 30 years, their demands have finally been fulfilled.
At the end of July, the chairman of the Czech, Petra Pavel, signed an amendment to the criminal code of his country, who commit crime to promote the communist ideology, puts it on the same leg as Nazi propagation. The amendment wants to apply on 1 January 2026.
The movement to amend the law was first launched by Martin Magstric, who was a leader of the student protests during the Velvet revolution in the past and later a check senator. The Czech Institute for the Study of the Study, or the historians of the USTR, ie, joined the initiative and in this spring, the amendment was passed through the check political system, which is supported by the European coalition government of Prime Minister Petra Fiala. The signature of President Powell in July finalized the process.
The amendment of Section 403 of the Czech Criminal Code is now punished for one to five years in jail for anyone, which “establishes, or promotes Nazi, Communist, or other movements, supports or promotes them, which aim to suppress human rights and freedom or suppress or raise, ethnic, national, religious or square-affected hatred.”
‘Criminal totalitarian ideology’
Kamil Nedvedic, a deputy director of the UTTR, said, “The purpose was to eliminate a clearly unfair gap between two criminal totalitarian ideologies of the 20th century,” said Kamil Nedvedic.
Both those ideologies suppressed fundamental rights and freedom, they said. “It is logical and just that the check criminal law clearly reflects it. It is not about ideology, it is about the defense of the democratic constitutional state,” Heer said.
The irony is somewhat irony that the Czech Republic is one of the few countries of the European Union, with a comparative successful Communist Party. The Communist Party of Bohemia and Morvia, or KSCM, which was formed in 1990 and four years ago until the last check parliamentary election, was a member of Parliament and even provided several check vice -presidents.
KSCM was the child of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, who was a dictatorial rule with the Marxist-Leninist ideology that ruled the country until 1989. KSCM has ten thousand members and has entered the European Parliament after 2024 European Union elections. (In English, “enough!”) Aligned. Voting indicates Stacilo! In the October Parliamentary elections of the Republic of Election, there will be more than 5% barrier in the Parliamentary elections. Its prominent candidate is the KSCM leader and a member of the European Parliament, Katerina Konka.
Possible ruling role for communists
And all this cannot happen. The current favorite Andrez Babis in the domestic elections, a former check Prime Minister, Oligur and right -wing populist party leader, ANO (in English, “yes”). Babies have not refused to work with Stcilo! To create a new alliance.
The new amendment to the check law can also ban KSCM. It took place in 2010 for Workers Party, a check color, extremist and Nav-Nazi party.
KSCM leader Konka told DW that the amendment is a political attack on his party by the present government.
“This is about the systematic effort by Petra Fiala’s anti -social, corrupt government to silence its most vigorous critics,” he argued. “This is definitely no place in a democratic society.”
Konka also stated that it was “entertaining” that the amendment was signed in the law by Powell, which was the previous major member of the original Czech Communist Party.
Pavel, a former career soldier, was a member of the Communist Party until 1989. “In retrospect and with the knowledge I have today, it was a decision, on which I certainly did not be proud of,” the Czech president said earlier.
“I think in the last 30 years I have dedicated to the construction of a safe Czech Republic, a symbolic apology for the society,” he first said in an interview with the Czech Tabloid, Blask. Pavel worked as the Chief of Staff of the Czech Army between 2012 and 2015 and as the chairman of the NATO military committee for more than three years since 2015.
Communist: ‘We will not be afraid’
KSCM leader Konka argues that the Czech government should address issues that common citizens have to deal with high energy prices and ineffective housing. Instead, she claims, she has spent her time passing a law to silence political critics.
“But we won’t be afraid,” he said. “Even though they threaten us a hundred times and imprison us.”
Russian politicians have spoken to the new check rules. The Speaker of the Russian Federation Parliament, Duma, said on 25 July, “When the state and system of that time are compared to fascist ideology and fascist rule, it is clear that our country is being questioned, being questioned and condemned,” Speaker of the Russian Federation’s Parliament, Vychaslav Volodin, Duma said on 25 July.
This story was original in German.