The wave of far-right parties across Europe has been gathering steam from Greece to France, Austria and Germany. While most of the continent’s extreme forces have taken pains to steer clear of Nazi imagery, Slovakia’s answer to the trend celebrates it, The Associated Press reports.
Kotleba – The People’s Party Our Slovakia – won almost 10 percent of the seats in Parliament in March. It openly admires the Nazi puppet state that the country was during World War II.
Party members use Nazi salutes, blame Gypsies for crime in deprived areas, consider NATO a terror group and want the country out of the alliance and the European Union.
In contrast to most of Europe’s far-right groups, “it’s truly neo-Nazi, it advocates the legacy of the Nazi war state,” says Eduard Chmelar, a Slovak political analyst.
“The parties like that are not looking for solutions, it’s all about protests. You can see it globally. It’s the same with Donald Trump, it’s the same with (Marine) Le Pen in France. What’s important is to be against the system. They’re all riding on a wave of public dissatisfaction that has been growing.” – Eduard Chmelar
The party takes its name from its leader, Marian Kotleba, previously chairman of the banned neo-Nazi Slovak Togetherness-National Party, which organized anti-Roma rallies and admired Nazi rule in Slovakia.
Thousands have signed a petition demanding that the party be banned. Analysts say the party’s popularity could grow even further.
Its simple slogan – “With courage against the system!” – attracts young people fed up with corruption and the inability of mainstream parties to deal effectively with the post-communist country’s problems.
WN.com, Jim Berrie
