Human rights minister slams president for his support of Bloc Against Islam

The country’s human rights minister and former presidential candidate Jiří Dienstbier has strongly criticized the head of state Miloš Zeman, charging he had thrown support behind “hate groups” in Czech society. On Tuesday, the anniversary of the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia, Mr Zeman shared the stage with members of the Bloc Against Islam at Prague’s Albertov, a move which Mr Dienstbier said “crossed all lines”. The group is strongly anti-immigration, using a crossed out mosque and minaret as its logo. Mr Dienstbier said that some of the president’s past statements were xenophobic, had spread fear in society, and helped fuel fascistic sentiments. The president’s spokesman, Jiří Ovčáček, reacted to the criticism by saying the minister had “once again” shown scorn for regular “citizens, their opinions and concerns”.