Czech town Plzen bans extremists' march

The Plzen Town Hall has banned a march of extremists scheduled for Saturday, Plzen Mayor Pavel Roedl told reporters today.

The event was announced at the respective local authority by Vaclav Bures as a protest march for freedom of expression. The march is to be a reaction to the police action that prevented neo-Nazis from marching through the Prague Jewish Town last November.

The Plzen Town Hall originally did not ban the march for which it was criticised by civic associations, the Jewish community and politicians.
Opponents of the extremists’ march wanted to express their stance at calm meetings in the streets of Plzen.

The local Jewish community also pointed to the date of the march, January 19, being close to the anniversary of the first transport of Plzen Jews that left for the Jewish ghetto in Terezin (Theresienstadt), north Bohemia, on January 18, 1942. Many therefore viewed the march as an offence against and mockery of the Holocaust victims.

Radicals from Germany were to take part in the extremists’ march in Plzen as well.

In connection with the march, Roedl convoked a meeting of the emergency committee on Monday that previously met after the windstorm Kyrill last January and then during the disastrous floods in summer 2002.

According to the police, hundreds up to thousands of radicals were to join the march. Policemen and rescuers were therefore preparing for it.
Extremists planned to march past the Great Synagogue in Plzen, which was considered the most risky route as a commemorative meeting of Jewish community supported by Christians and other activists was to start there at 14:00 on Saturday.

Anarchists, too, planned to hold a protest meeting on Saturday under the slogan Youth Against Nazism, but municipal officials did not allow the event over formal shortcomings in the application.

The extremists have announced another march in Plzen on January 26. The respective authority has banned the action.