Far-right DS, Romanies believe Czech town leaders should resign

Tomas Vandas, head of the Czech far-right Workers’ Party, as well as local Romanies believe that the municipal councillors in Litvinov should resign over their failure to solve problems in Janov, a housing estate with prevailing unadaptable residents, mainly Romanies.

Vandas at a press conference accused the hall of Litvinov, a town with 27,000 inhabitants, of neglecting the situation in Janov.

Radek Grunza, head of the Romany Christian Association, told CTK separately that the situation in Janov is the consequence of the bad work of Litvinov’s mayor and deputy mayor.

As a result of their bad work, right-wing radicals have raised their publicity in Janov and tension has increased among local inhabitants, Grunza said.

Vandas also criticised what he called the town council’s corruption in placing municipal orders. He said the Workers’ Party (DS) has received people’s complaints about the town hall’s opaque deals.

Grunza, too, said separately, that he had information about corruption at the Litvinov hall.

Vandas set February 15 as the deadline for Litvinov Mayor Milan Stovicek (Civic Democrats, ODS) and Deputy Mayor Martin Klika (Social Democrats, CSSD) to resign.

"If they failed to step down by then, we’d establish a shadow town council. It would include not only DS members but also experts from among the Litvinov public. There are many competent and talented people. We’d work parallelly with the town council until the local elections [due next year], and warn politicians of problems they should urgently focus on," Vandas said.

Stovicek and Klika dismissed the DS’s accusations and said they do not intend to resign.

According to a report on the public order and internal security situation in Prague in 2008, which Prague Police head Martin Cervicek presented on Tuesday, Neo-Nazis have got control of the DS, an extra-parliamentary party.

The neo-Nazi National Resistance and the ultra-nationalist Autonomous Nationalist parties agreed with the DS on cooperation, says the report, which was immediately labelled an "absolute nonsense" by Vandas.

The government recently proposed that the court outlaw the DS over its repeated violation of law.

Vandas today said the DS has about 550 members in the Czech Republic.

"We continue strengthening…In the 2010 local elections we will run not only in Litvinov but also in other bigger towns. More and more people have been turning to us and asking us to help them solve problems they are faced with. Apart from the inhabitants of Janov, they are, for example, people from Bilina, Usti nad Labem (both north Bohemia), Karvina and Ostrava (both north Moravia)," Vandas said, referring to towns with large Romany communities.

Earlier today, a 30-strong DS "patrol" marched through Janov. No incidents occurred during the march.