Workers' Party (Czech Republic)

Workers' Party Dělnická strana
Leader	Tomáš Vandas
Founded	18 January 2003
Dissolved	17 February 2010
Headquarters	Ciolkovského 853, 161 00 Praha 6
Ideology	Nationalism, National Socialism, Populism, Euroskeptism
Political position	Far-right
European Parliament Group	None
Official colours	black, red and white
Website
www.delnicka-strana.cz
Politics of the Czech Republic Political parties Elections

Tomáš Vandas

Worker's Party (Czech: Dělnická strana) was a Czech political party, often described as the major far-right extremist party in the Czech Republic. The party in not represented in any legislative body in the Czech Republic and its biggest electoral success so far has been a gain of 1,07% in the European Elections in 2009. Some of the high-ranking party officials, including a Prague party leader, have been associated with neo-nazi groups such as Národní odpor, Czech subsidiary of international militant neo-nazi group ^[1][2]. In spring 2009 the petition for the ban of the party was dismissed by the Czech Supreme Administrative Court ^[3], because, as the presiding judge stated, the applicant (Czech government) didn't manage to provide sufficient evidence in what was seen as a botched application ^[4][5]. Following violent attacks against Czech minorities by far-right extremists ^[6] (such as Vítkov arson attack of 2009), and the government has filled a more detailed petition for the ban, which was discussed by Czech Supreme Court in January and February 2010. The party was banned, making it the first instance of banning a party for its ideology in the modern history of the Czech Republic.^[7]

Ideology and program

The program of the Workers' Party is not easily classifiable. On January 19, 2003, a day after the party was established, it published a press release that it planned to compete mostly with the Czech communist party^[8] and as late as in early autumn 2008 the Workers' party program was considerably socialist, when the party's most important program point in the regional elections was an abolition of medical fees paid by Czech patients. The party received less than 1% of votes, but shortly afterwards attracted major media attention for organizing riots in quarters of Litvínov city with a significant Roma population ^[9][10]. Afterwards, the party has managed to maintain considerable publicity by organizing a marche against homosexuals^[11] in Tabor.

The party has then started to emphasize a nationalist dimension of its program, mostly effort to overhaul what they see as a favorable treatment of minorities, and in fact has started a radically anti-communist rhetoric, e.g. on the 20^th anniversary of the collapse of communism in Czechoslovakia the party leader Tomáš Vandas has said: "So what is the state of the society nowadays? In one word: tragic. Communists still govern us."^[12].

The party claims that it is the only "real opposition" in the Czech Republic, since it is the only party opposing the Czech political system (which has been repeatedly rated as the most democratic of former communist countries and is currently the 19^th most democratic system in the world by The Economist Democracy index)^{[citation needed]}. The party has repeatedly called for the overthrow and subversion of Czech political system, which the party describes both as "liberal" ^[13] and "totalitarian" ^[14] The official slogan for 2009 European Elections was "Resist the totalitarian regime".

Concerning economic aspects of the party's program, it includes vague and contradictory populist demands^{[original research?]} such as reducing national debt while increasing old age pensions and reducing the retirement age ^[15]. Some of the more concrete proposals include restrictions on foreign investment, including a total ban on purchases of real estate by foreign nationals^[15] and nationalization of certain companies^[16].

The party also wants to restore the death penalty^[16], criminalize "sexual deviation", including homosexuality ^[16], abolish registered partnership, reduce rights of the prosecuted ^[16] and in some cases create new crimes with a retroactive effect ^[16]. Some of the most controversial proposals include marking of ethnicity in ID cards ^[17] and giving the police discretion to treat the arrested person inhumanly ^[16].

In international affairs, the party opposes NATO and European Union and requires the Czech Republic leave these organizations ^[17]. The party is strongly anti-American and seems to be pro-Russian ^[18], going as far as stating that the Czech Republic must "immediately and strongly restore its relations with Russia" ^[19] Concerning other matters in international affairs, it is hard to determine the party position, since the party has not taken a stance and its releases in the party internet journal are very contradictory^{[original research?]}: e.g. the chairman of the party arbitration commission congratulated the radical president of the Islamic Republic of Iran after the controversial elections^[20], but wrote a highly islamophobic article 6 weeks afterwards ^[21].

Accusations of neo-nazism

The party has never denied its ideology is national socialism, but has occasionally claimed that it is inspired by Czechoslovak inter-war parties, which were democratic, respected human rights and opposed nazism, but were called national socialists. Instead, it claims that it is not inspired by Hitler's variant of national socialism. However, there is a clear evidence of affiliation with, or inspiration by, nazism, besided the above-mentioned affiliation of some of its leaders with neo-nazi organizations. Some of the reasons include:^{[original research?]}

• The party has established units for the protection of party officials, called Ochranné sbory.^{[citation needed]}
• The party has established a youth organization, called Dělnická mládež (Workers' youth).^{[citation needed]} The organization is very similar to Hitler youth.^{[original research?]}
• The party uses symbols used by NSDAP and German Labour Front. The youtube video for the "Party anthem" ^{[22][unreliable source?]} features scores of pictures unrelated to Czech culture, but instead showing Nordic mythology, which in certain ways inspired nazi leaders such as Himmler (see Nazism and occultism)^{[original research?]}. Political scientists who did a research about the party's ideology noted that "The party materials and works of its supporters feature, both implicitly and explicitally, religious symbols, that are strongly related to Germanic neopaganism, which is a characteristical feature of (neo)nazism" ^[23].
• Similarities in the programs of the Workers' party and NSDAP include:

1) Contempt for democratic government, human rights and minorities rights,^{[citation needed]}

2) Strong anti-communism, and at the same time collectivism and a critique of economic and political liberalism,^{[citation needed]}

3) Anti-feminism, racism (including anti-semitism).^{[citation needed]}

Election results

European Parliament

Year	# of total votes	Vote %	Seats
2004	4,289	0.18	0
2009	25,368	1.07	0

References

1. ^ [1]. Workers' party election candidates and nazi symbols (only in Czech, with photographs)
2. ^ [2]. Workers' party has been taken over by neo-nazis (only in Czech)
3. ^ [3]. Supreme administrative court judgment, 4.3.2009 (only in Czech)
4. ^ [4]. Top court rejects government’s petition to ban extremist Workers’ Party
5. ^ [5]. (only in Czech)
6. ^ [6]. Czech Police arrested extremist leaders over Vítkov arson
7. ^ Aktualne.cz: Soud zrušil Dělnickou stranu. Chtěla rozvrátit stát
8. ^ [7]. Electronic archive of party press releases, January 19, 2010
9. ^ [8]. Litvinov has seen a rough fight with the extremists, 15 injured. (only in Czech)
10. ^ [9]. Journalist injured while covering rally
11. ^ [10]. Saturday in Tabor: both gays and extremists (only in Czech)
12. ^ [11]. Speech of the party chairman, November 17, 2009 (only in Czech)
13. ^ [12]. Workers news: "Let's clean up our own country". (Official party newspaper, only in Czech)
14. ^ [13]. Workers news: "Vandas: The post-November regime has discredited itself". (Official party newspaper, only in Czech)
15. ^ ^{a b} [14]. Party program, article III
16. ^ ^{a b c d e f} [15]. Party program, article II
17. ^ ^{a b} [16]. Party program, article I
18. ^ [17]. Workers news: "Nobody really wants a change?" (Official party newspaper, only in Czech)
19. ^ [18]. Workers news: "Confession of a patriot and a good son of the Homeland" (Official party newspaper, only in Czech)
20. ^ [19]. Workers news: "Who do you want to lecture?" (Official party newspaper, only in Czech)
21. ^ [20]. Workers news: "Muslim union". (Official party newspaper, only in Czech)
22. ^ [21]. Youtube video of the anthem.
23. ^ Roman Míčka, František Štěch; Dělnická strana jako pseudonáboženský fenomén? (Workers' party as a quasireligious phenomenon?), Revue Politika 9/2009