Nazis across Europe have changed into business casual. They save their mates with Nazi T-shirts for the weekends. From Monday to Friday, they use polished terms such as “ethnocultural identity” and “remigration”.
Svobodní, led by MP Libor Vondráček, has invited their more successful counterparts from Central Europe to Prague for 13/11. Both the Slovak Republika and the German AfD are linked to xenophobic violence and flirt with Third Reich attitudes and symbols. The Hungarian party Mi Házank promotes racist and homophobic policies, and the militant group Bűnvadászok, linked to it, harasses Roma and LGBTQ+ people on the streets. Vondráček invited their representatives to Prague and added Benedikt Kaiser, a former Nazi hooligan, to the lineup, presenting him as a “writer”.
Svobodní are presenting the Slovak MEP Milan Mazurek as their star attraction – a racist who lost his parliamentary seat due to anti-Roma remarks. We know full well who will show up to meet him. His Prague fan club includes Vlastimil Pechanec, a racist criminal convicted of murder, or Filip Vávra, founder of Národní odpor and a tireless resuscitator of the 1990s.
The fancy outfits and slogans hide the same old ideas. “Remigration” is just a rebranding of “Čechy Čechům” and a code for the desire to drive all people who are not ‘white enough’ out of Europe, often even those born here. The actions of ICE in the US show what “remigration” looks like in practice. The agency hires poorly trained Trump supporters whose only qualification is racism. It then allows them to dehumanise, harass and tear apart families and communities, and even shoot people in the street.
European racists look across the ocean with glee. They long to see even people with valid documents torn away from their loved ones and deported to places where they may’ve never even lived. And the violent nazi thugs we know from the 2000s are happy to come out of the woodwork and lend a hand to the fascist elites.
What does this have to do with feminism? All the MPs mentioned above are seeking to restrict reproductive rights and are fuelling hatred towards LGBTQ+ people. Yet this does not stop them from exploiting women’s rights as a racist argument, stigmatising “foreigners” and presenting them as sex offenders. We refuse to allow women’s rights to be used for racist propaganda.
Prague is a place for everyone.
The only place for Nazis is in the most abhorrent chapter of Europe’s past.
We won’t give them a moment’s peace.
Don’t be fooled by Trump, Orbán and the like. Antifascism is not a crime. Standing up against fascism is a must.
See you in the streets!