While there has been no significant growth in the number of members and sympathizers of ultra-right organizations, they are still very much present in the Czech Republic. In fact, persistent economic difficulties and political instability could be a breeding ground for increased extremism. The Czechs, as Time magazine noted in its issue of 15 March 1999, "struggle to mend the tattered remnants of the ‘Velvet Revolution’.”

Indeed, since 1998 there have been some significant developments on the extremist map of the Czech Republic. Skinheads, who constitute a major and dangerous element among extremists, especially in their opposition to Roma and foreigners, have intensified their efforts to win respectability. The “new” skinhead image is characterized by non-violence, restraint in usage of fascist slogans and efficient organization (Central Europe Online, 31 April 1999). Human rights activists have warned of this trend, which might make police action against them more difficult. Skinhead leader Jan Brcak said in an interview in the daily Lidove Noviny of 30 April 1999, that “we have ambitions to establish a political party. We are still gathering signatures, but we have time until the elections.” In fact Brcak has been trying to register a skinhead group as a civic association called National Socialists, but as of summer 2000 his application had been rejected. The Movement for Civic Solidarity and Tolerance, which monitors neo-Nazi activities, suggested that the skinheads wanted to fill the political vacuum left by Miroslav Sladek’s Republican Party.

Another development has been the heightened profile of the ultra-right-wing National Alliance. Alliance leader Vladimir Skoupy, a Holocaust denier, gained considerable publicity with his extremist speeches and statements. On 25 February 2000 the Czech news agency CTK and RFE/RL Newsline reported Skoupy’s arrest for disseminating fascist propaganda and wearing Nazi symbols. In June 2000 CTK reported that he had been found guilty of “support and propagation of a movement that aimed at suppressing citizens’ rights and freedoms and defaming a nation, race or conviction,” and given a one-year prison term and a four-year suspended sentence. He was expected to appeal.

The National Alliance, often called the National Social Alliance, is known for its ties with skinheads, and Skoupy’s movement may provide some of the cover for the skinheads’ attempts to legitimize their activities. However, if the Czech skinheads are indeed endeavoring to change their tactics and win “respectability,” their cooperation with the National Alliance reveals their true nature, since the latter, especially its leader Skoupy, engages in vitriolic racist and anti-Semitic propaganda. On 20 April 2000, RFE/RL Newsline reported that the Czech Interior Ministry had refused to register the National Social Alliance as a political party.

ANTI-SEMITIC ACTIVITIES AND PROPAGANDA

There was one anti-Semitic incident reported in 1999, a decline from the last few years. In July, an orthodox Jew in Prague had his hat knocked off by a gang of five skinheads, who shouted anti-Semitic curses at him.

Several extremist publications with anti-Semitic content appear in the Czech Republic, including Narodni Boj (National Struggle), Pochoden Denska (Torch of Today) and Dnesek (Today). Several dozen small skinhead publications with racist content appear on an irregular basis. The main skinhead magazine, Vlajka, publishes anti-Semitic material.

The National Alliance’s served as a major channel of fascist propaganda. In several demonstrations in 1999 and early 2000 Skoupy made speeches denying the Holocaust and used Nazi symbols.

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE HOLOCAUST AND THE NAZI ERA

In the Czech Republic incidents of Holocaust denial are rare. In the past few years, Czech society has attempted to cope with some of the taboos on the years of the Nazi occupation, enforced during the years of the communist regime. This has included soul-searching on the nature of collaboration and the low level of effective resistance. Moreover, recent Czech scholarship has emphasized the suffering and fate of the Jewish community.

However, basic information about the Jews and their past is still lacking in Czech schools. Leo Pavlat, director of the Jewish Museum in Prague, who wrote a paper on this topic for the American Jewish Committee, was quoted in Transitions (an online journal on Central and Eastern Europe) of January 1999, as saying that history books in the Czech Republic largely ignored the Holocaust and the fate of the Jews in the Czech lands. In 1999, there were signs of a growing awareness among historians and educators of the need to include the Holocaust and anti-Semitism in the school curriculum (see below).

The close collaboration between the National Alliance and skinheads was evident in a vitriolic article on the Holocaust, entitled “Such a Happy Journey,” written by Skoupy in the skinhead magazine Vlajka. Skoupy minimized the Holocaust, insulted its victims and offered “the rental of livestock wagons with straw entirely free-of-charge for their transportation [to concentration camps].”

Skinheads and neo-Nazis organized several demonstrations in 1999. On the anniversary of the founding of the Czech Republic in October 1999, speakers denied the murder of Jews and Roma, the gas chambers and the Holocaust.

RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM

Since early 1999, the Czech authorities have been actively endeavoring to stamp out racism. Their attempts to enforce the law follow EU warnings on the prospects of the Czech Republic joining the community should racist attacks persist. The major targets of racist attacks continued to be the Roma, whose fate, as in other East and Central European states, is a major topic in the public and political discourse. According to the New York Times, 17 October 1999, unemployment had reached some 90 percent among the Roma population in the Czech Republic.

Police investigations and legal procedures against perpetrators of racist attacks are often slow, as is the case in other East European states. The legal authorare aware of the urgency of dealing with the growing number of racist attacks, but not much has been done to deal more effectively and rapidly with perpetrators. The steps against Vladimir Skoupy may serve as a test case in this regard.

The ongoing tensions between Czech and Roma in Usti nad Labem, a small industrially depressed town, did not abate during 1999, highlighting the gravity of problems related to the Roma. Human rights activists, such as Monika Horakova, the only Roma member of parliament, are active in combating racism. The New York Times reported on 12 May 2000 that she was seeking to prosecute a club in her hometown, Brno, which barred her because of her racial origins.

A major international conference held in Prague in October 1999 tackled the problem of teaching the history of the Holocaust and educating against all forms of racism. The treatment of the Roma during the war was an integral part of the discussions, and Karel Molomek, chairman of the Association of Roma in Moravia, spoke of the 5,000 Czech and Moravian Roma killed by the Nazis. President Vaclav Havel emphasized that the Czechs must learn a lesson from the fate of the Jews and Roma.