Ultra-right radicals distance themselves from DS, its successor (PragueMonitor.com)

Ultra-right radicals distance themselves from DS, its successor

(ČTK, 12th March, 2010)

The Czech ultra-right Autonomous Nationalists (AN) grouping has made a statement critical of the now scrapped Workers' Party (DS) and its successor, the Workers' Party of Social Justice (DSSS), which political analysts say might cause a rift in the ultra-right camp and weaken the DSSS.

In a statement issued on its website the AN dissociates itself from the DS due to the latter's "total incompetence and unprecedented betrayal of AN cells' members, and mainly due to its lack of solidarity and incapability of cooperation."

The AN says the DSSS, successor to the extra-parliamentary DS which the court banned as extremist and racist in February, has a 'pathetic programme' based on 'populist nonsense'.

It criticises the large number of DS's demonstrations with low attendance, whose participants are "either drunken or unsuitably and aggressively behaving individuals."

The DSSS is far from respectable, AN writes, also reproaching the DSSS for failing to help far-right activists detained by police.

Political analysts Martin Bastl and Miroslav Mares told CTK that it is not clear what portion of the far-right scene will back the AN's critical statement.

In any case, the statement could cause a rift and a dispute within the ultra-right and weaken the DSSS, the analysts said.

The analysts agreed that the ultra-right's critical approach to the DS is nothing new, but it has surprisingly surfaced now that the elections have drawn nearer.

The AN's statement may weaken the DSSS's ability to mobilise people to attend big meetings. It may also lead to a decline in the DSSS's voter preferences. On the other hand, the DSSS could start to be supported by new, different voters, said Mares.

The internal disputes can be expected to intensify and the ultra-right scene to fragmentarise, said Bastl.

In mid-February the Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) ordered that the DS be dissolved. Among others, the court pointed to the DS's ties with neo-Nazi groups such as the AN and the National Resistance (NO).

The party leadership, with Tomas Vandas at the helm, then said the party will run in the May elections under the name of the DSSS, an allied and previously dormant entity

source: ..:. PragueMonitor.com :.