Current Affairs Anniversary of 1948 coup marked by calls for Communist Party to be banned
Hundreds of people attended a rally in Prague's Old Town Square on Friday to mark the 57th anniversary of the communist seizure of power in February 1948. Under the very same balcony at which Klement Gottwald announced the communist takeover, the crowd listened in respectful silence as a speaker read out the names of the people executed by the communist regime that ruled this country for over forty years.
People light up candles at the symbolic grave of the victims of communism at Prague's Old Town Square, photo: CTK
The event was not without controversy, as it was organised by a group
which
has launched a contentious petition to ban the Communist Party and the
symbols it uses.
They claim that the crimes committed in the name of communism - including the execution of a nearly a thousand opponents of the regime and the incarceration of tens of thousands of political prisoners in labour camps - are comparable to those committed by the Nazis.
Propagating and supporting Nazism is already a criminal offence in this country, and the people behind the petition want the same thing to apply to those who espouse communism.
Photo: CTK
The move has been hotly debated in this country, and it has attracted a
lot of criticism in some quarters. This is hardly surprising given that
the Communist Party is still the largest political party in the Czech
Republic with around 100,000 members. Opinion polls also seem to indicate
that it will become the second-largest party in
Parliament at the next elections.
I spoke with some of those who turned out to honour the victims of communism, and asked them what they thought of the initiative to ban the Communist Party:
"Given the fact that this particular party is responsible for thousands of deaths through execution and for tens of thousands of deaths in army camps and uranium mines, there is a need for accountability here. Just as the Nazi party was rightly never allowed to continue, the Communist Party should not have been allowed to continue either. Any initiative that strives to finally exact some kind of normal rule of law in this case is good."
"I think to ban a party completely would not bring about the results that discussion would bring. I think that if you forbid a party, then the party is out of the political spectrum and this doesn't solve the situation in the way I imagine it should be solved. The Communist Party in the Czech Republic today has a massive influence. It's one of the strongest parties and I think that there is a real danger that in the future - after the next elections or perhaps later - the party could have real influence on government. I don't agree with this and that's why I came today. [But] the solution does not lie in forbidding something, but in generating discussion and in showing people what is happening now."
"I find the initiative very important, because I think people should know that some of us don't find it OK that the communists are still here with the name of their party and the policies they wish to implement. Some of the crimes that were committed over the course of forty years [here] were committed in the name of communism and, as such, I think the only good solution is to ban the party and to not allow this name to be used in politics anymore."
