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Czech Constitutional Court receives municipal complaint over 1 May march by extremists

22 October 2012
3 minute read

The Czech Constitutional Court (Ústavní soud – ÚS) has received a complaint from the Brno-střed municipality regarding the march planned for this Sunday by the Workers’ Youth (Dělnická mládež – DM). Brno-střed officials attempted to ban the march, but their decision was overturned by the Brno Municipal Court. A subsequent cassation complaint to the Supreme Administrative Court also failed.

According to this new complaint, the Constitutional Court is being asked to rule on whether the current law on assembly violates the rights of municipalities to govern their own affairs by tying their hands when it comes to the fight against extremist actions. The DM is an organization closely linked to the Workers’ Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti – DSSS) and the neo-Nazi initiatives National Resistance (Národní odpor – NO) and the Autonomous Nationalists (Autonomní nacionalisté -AN).

The court is not likely to rule on the complaint before Sunday’s march. The length of time it will take to decide the case cannot be predicted, but such cases usually take several months, according to court spokesperson Jana Pelcová. The case will be handled by the court’s Vice-Chair, Pavel Holländer.

“If a municipality is to protect the interests of its citizens and security on the streets, the current form of the law on assembly significantly restricts municipalities in that role,” the Brno-střed authorities claim in their press release. According to Brno-střed mayor Libor Šťástka (Civic Democrats – ODS), the municipal authority wants the three-day deadline for evaluating announced public gatherings to be struck down. In his view this time-frame is too short and is “virtually discriminatory”.

“By filing this constitutional complaint, we want to spark debate about the current form of the law on assembly and the impossibility of municipalities effectively defending themselves against similar actions. We will be very glad to learn what the Constitutional Court’s commentary and perspective on this matter are,” Šťástka said recently.

The DM members who announced the 1 May march initially called it a Labor Day celebration. They have given it the motto “Against the Invasion of Foreign Workers and the Exodus of Our People”. They have announced two different routes for the march. The Brno-střed authority tried to ban one route, and Brno City Hall criticized the other for crossing back and forth between two different parts of the city. In the end, the march will evidently take place along a route leading through a locality where many socially vulnerable people, including local Roma, now live. Anti-Nazi activists want to block the march. Police are preparing large-scale security measures.

According to the Supreme Administrative Court, Brno-střed officials did not give sufficient justification for their attempt to ban the march. For example, the authority argued that the march would cause transportation problems. The court said that officials can only respond to any eventual illegal behavior by march participants directly at the event when it occurs. “Should the rights of a third party be jeopardized, or if the gathering should deviate from its announced purpose, the Supreme Administrative Court referred the authority to the option of dispersing the gathering,” said František Emmert, spokesperson for the Supreme Administrative Court, in a recent press release.

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