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The president of the Czech Republic has signed an amendment to the criminal law that criminalizes promoting communist propaganda, putting it at a level similar to Nazi ideology.
The revised law signed by Petr Pavel allows judges to convey a prison sentence of up to five years for “Nazis, communists, or anyone who establishes, supports or promotes Nazis, communists, or other moves that aim to curb race, ethnic, national, religious or class-based hatred.”
The change follows calls from some Czech institutions, including the Institute for Research in the Totalitarian Regime, to correct what is described as an imbalance in the legal system.
However, the Bohemia and Moravian Communist Party (KSčm), led by MEP Cathegina Connectina, accused the move of politically motivating.
“This is another failed attempt to push Ksčm out of the law and intimidate critics of the current administration,” the party said in a statement.
It is not yet clear how the new law can be applied to legitimate parties like KSčm.
The party currently does not have seats in parliament, but a recent poll has brought the “Stachiro” (enough) alliance to 5%.
The Czech Republic was part of the former Czechoslovakia and was under the Soviet Union in Europe after World War II.
The velvet revolution in 1989 brought an end to 41 years of one-party rule, led by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSč), leading the transition to the parliamentary republic.
In the last election in 2021, KSčm failed to win more than 5% of the vote. In other words, the Czech Parliament had no representatives of communism for the first time since 1920.
