Czech Republic: Brno neighborhood to file constitutional complaint over ultra-right march

The local authority of the Brno-střed neighborhood is evidently planning to file a constitutional complaint against recent decisions handed down by the Regional Court in Brno and the Supreme Administrative Court. The decisions overturned a ban on a 1 May march through Brno announced by the Workers’ Youth (Dělnická mládež – DM). The Brno-střed neighborhood had originally issued the ban. Brno-střed mayor Libor Šťástka (Civic Democrats – ODS) announced the news to journalists today.

The municipal neighborhood council will discuss a motion to file a constitutional complaint on Wednesday. Šťástka said that in all likelihood the motion will be approved.

“We want the Constitutional Court to review whether the rights of local authorities in the Czech Republic are being jeopardized by the fact that they have no influence over what takes place on the streets of their territorial districts. Eventually we would like to see them declare invalid one particular provision of the law on assembly invalid because it gives local authorities only a very brief, three-day time limit for evaluating demonstrations or marches once they are announced,” Šťástka said.

The DM is a civic association that collaborates with the extreme-right Workers’ Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti – DSSS). The march is scheduled for 1 May. According to the announcement, it will start with a gathering in Lužánka Park, from where those assembled will march down Smetanova, Veveří, Husova and Pekařska streets to Mendl Square (Mendlovo náměstí). The DM has also announced another march for a route leading through the troubled neighborhood near Cejl and Francouzská streets.

Local authorities rejected both events, only to have the Regional Court overturn their decisions. The Brno-střed town hall also had no luck with a cassation complaint to the Supreme Administrative Court. Even though the court has not yet ruled on a separate complaint filed by the City of Brno, city hall is preparing for the march to take place.

The DM announced its gathering as a celebration of Labor Day, but bureaucrats have no doubt that the real purpose of the rally is something else entirely. However, when the local authority decided to ban the gathering, it did not have any clear evidence available for its supposition that the event would be linked to right-wing extremism.

Šťástka does not presume the Constitutional Court might be able to issue a verdict in the case by next week. Nevertheless, he wants the local authority to object to the current situation whereby it has only three working days to respond to announcements by persons convening demonstrations or marches. “An adequate time-frame would be around 30 days,” Štástka said. In his view, local authorities would then have sufficient opportunity to document the necessary evidence for any eventual ban.

Brno has become the setting for 1 May actions by right-wing extremists several times in the past. In 2007 a march announced for 1 May degenerated into violent clashes between demonstrators and police.