Czech chair of ultra-right party now leads the "Clean Region" movement in Ústecký Region

The chair of the ultra-right Workers Social Justice Party (DSSS) in the Czech Republic, Tomáš Vandas, has become the leader of the "Clean Region" (Čistý kraj) movement in the Ústecký Region ahead of regional elections this autumn. The candidate list of the extremist DSSS includes Jindřich Svoboda, currently a local councilor leading the town of Duchcov in coalition with the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM), and the "We Are Living Through Duchcov" (Žijeme Duchcovem) movement.

Under the heading of the "Clean Region" group, representatives of the DSSS and other movements will be running for regional office. "We want to create a coalition of parties that have similar program priorities," Vandas said.

The aim of "Clean Region", according to Vandas, is to change the "unflattering upending of this region where the ghettos are growing. We want to concentrate on safety, the problem with the inadaptables."

"Clean Region" has already begun its election campaign, according to Vandas. "We will have billboards, we are conducting the campaign through social media, but mainly it will be a campaign of contact, we will meet with the citizens," he said.

Before this, Vandas was the lead candidate in 2018 during the local elections in Ústí nad Labem for a movement calling itself "Clean Ústí", winning 2.7 % of the vote and failing to be seated on the local assembly. He has previously repeatedly attempted to win political office in the region.

In 2016 Vandas ran for senator and that same year was also the lead candidate on the joint list of the DSSS and other movements during the regional election, during which the coalition won 3.2 % of the vote. The Czech Interior Ministry categorizes the DSSS as an extreme-right party.

The predecessor to the DSSS, the Workers Party (DS), was first established in 2003. In the year 2010 the Supreme Administrative Court agreed with a Government motion to dissolve the DS.

The court found the DS program featured chauvinist and xenophobic elements, a racist subtext, and was carrying on the national socialism of Adolf Hitler. The representatives of the dissolved DS then created the DSSS.