The month of extremists

Naturally, the collapse of neo-Nazi celebrations of the Kristallnacht is good news. Czech society has shown it wants to stand up against the brown danger, and that it knows how. But one question remains after Saturday's clash with extremists in the centre of Prague: Was this a „sporadic event“, easy to handle and soon forgotten, or are we witnessing a more significant and worrisome onset of fascist strength? We have yet settle accounts with the red variety of the same totalitarian fever: A few days before the neo-Nazi celebration of the beginning of the Holocaust, local communists, undisturbed, celebrated the anniversary of the bloody Bolshevik revolution in Russia and called on their fans to get ready for World War III and „re-install socialism“.

On a dynamic rise

„The neo-Nazi movement is on the rise today,“ political scientist Jiří Pehe says. „I think they are gradually becoming a threat, not only in neighbouring countries, as has been the case up to now, but also here.“

Unlike left-wing extremists – communists – the neo-Nazi movement is dynamic and energetic, and its protagonists are young people. „In the Communist Party, the mainstream is formed by old and exhausted people who have no potential to mobilise anybody and therefore are no longer dangerous,“ says Jiří Pehe. "The communist ideology also responded…