Czech ultra-right party invites German neo-Nazis to tomorrow's 1 May demo in Prague

The Workers’ Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti – DSSS) has invited two leading German neo-Nazis to address the demonstration it has convened for tomorrow, 1 May, in Prague. The neo-Nazis’ annual 1 May party will be spiced up this year by some truly “special guests”. A veteran of the German scene who earned his notoriety by giving the Nazi salute when being sworn in at the Munich town hall and the leader of the neo-Nazis from Upper Palatinate will be on display.

One of these guests is Karl Richter, the German National Democratic Party (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands – NPD) Vice-Chair who has been active on the neo-Nazi scene since the 1980s. He has made no secret of his admiration for Hitler’s Third Reich during his long career and has publicly lobbied against anti-fascists, ethnic minorities, migrants, and sexual minorities. An illustrative episode from his work was his giving of the Nazi salute at the Munich town hall while taking the oath to become a city councilor. He was elected to the city council in 2008 on the ticket of the “Bürgerinitiative Ausländerstopp”(the “Stop Foreigners” civic association) which won 1. 4 % of the vote.

The other representative of the German neo-Nazis will be Simon Preisinger, the district chair of the NPD for Tirschenreuth and Beirat (Oberpfalz – Upper Palatinate). He leads the neo-Nazi group Freies Netz Süd (“Free Network South” – FNS) and has strong ties to the structures that arose after the collapse of the Czech neo-Nazi National Resistance (Národní odpor – NO) in the Karlovy Vary region. Lately he has also established ties with the NO organization in the Krušné hory area, which is led by current DSSS activist Lukáš Stoupa, a man who has previously been convicted of committing a brutal assault on a male Romani minor.

Several years ago, the chair of the NPD, Udo Voigt, expressed doubt as to the extent of the murders of Jewish people committed during WWII and demanded the return of the territories Germany lost after 1945, including the Czech Sudetenland, which had been awarded to Hitler’s German Reich by the Munich Agreement. Some members and sympathizers of the NPD have been tried by German courts for making revisionist declarations and speeches that border on Holocaust denial. The DSSS previously said it has concluded a manifesto on cooperation with the NPD. For more detailed information on both of the neo-Nazis coming to Prague, please see the recently published article on the Antifa.cz website (in Czech only), “1 May with the German neo-Nazis” (at http://www.antifa.cz/content/s-nemeckymi-neonacisty-na-1-maje).