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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PRAGUE 001225 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL SOCI EZ
SUBJECT: CZECH REPUBLIC: ANARCHIST RIOTS OVERSHADOW PLANNED 
NEO-NAZI MARCHES, THOUSANDS PEACEFULLY DEMONSTRATE AGAINST 
FASCISM 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY & COMMENT:  The much-anticipated and, in some 
cases, feared neo-Nazi marches through Prague's Jewish 
quarter on November 10 were largely nullified by effective 
police work and well-organized counter-demonstrations. Most 
of the day's events passed peacefully with nearly a thousand 
people, many wearing Stars of David, attending solemn prayer 
vigils on the 69th anniversary of Kristallnacht.  Thousands 
of ordinary Czechs participated in other peaceful gatherings 
throughout the day, and Foreign Minister Schwarzenberg and 
his German counterpart visited with local Jewish leaders. 
Though the participation of right-wing groups at the protests 
was ruled illegal, many nevertheless attempted to 
demonstrate. Czech authorities intercepted scores of 
neo-Nazis coming from abroad and apprehended many local 
extremists before they reached the demonstrations. 
 
 
¶2. (U) SUMMARY & COMMENT CONT: However, it was the rallies by 
several thousand left-wing radicals that overshadowed the 
neo-Nazi actions.  An anarchist march later in the day spun 
out of control and led to clashes with police and 
by-standers. In all, approximately 400 people were arrested, 
90 of whom were foreigners.  Many would-be demonstrators had 
weapons.  Though prepared for the worst, police forces 
exercised admirable restraint in containing the riots and not 
responding to provocation.  Nevertheless, the demonstrations 
and clashes raised uncomfortable questions for the Czech 
Republic: namely, whether the country can find a proper 
balance between protected free-speech and prohibited hate 
speech; and whether the left was able to exploit the occasion 
to further its own extremist goals. END SUMMARY & COMMENT 
 
THE ROAD TO PRAGUE 
¶3. (U) The road to the November 10 demonstrations began on 
August 27, when an unknown group in Brno calling itself Mladi 
Narodni Demokrate ("Young National Democrats," hereafter 
National Democrats) filed a petition with the Prague city 
hall for permission to demonstrate against the country's 
involvement in Iraq on the anniversary of Kristallnacht.  The 
city approved the permit, but after some research, it became 
apparent that the National Democrats were a front 
organization for Narodni Odpor ("National Resistance"), a 
group known for its neo-Nazi agenda and history of incitement 
against racial and ethnic minorities.  The city swiftly 
reversed course and canceled the organizers' permit. 
 
¶4. (U) Through a series of appeals and counter-appeals, the 
fate of the permit remained in doubt, with the Prague City 
Court holding to its ruling from 2006 that the city had no 
legal right to go beyond the organizers' stated intent on the 
application when deciding whether to issue the permit.  In 
essence, the court ruled that free speech rights outweigh a 
supposed but unproven potential for hate speech.  Meanwhile, 
the city discovered that the National Democrats were not a 
legally registered organization until two weeks after they 
filed their petition to march. Ultimately, the Supreme 
Administrative Court overruled the lower court on technical 
grounds, holding that as the National Democrats were not a 
legally-registered entity at the time they filed their 
request, they lacked the requisite legal status to march. 
This obviated the need for the city to issue the permit and 
made it unnecessary for legal authorities to decide the more 
substantive constitutional issues. 
 
¶5. (U)  The constant high-level political and social focus on 
the controversy generated intense media interest, including 
steady coverage in the foreign press, and elevated what might 
have been a poorly-attended right-wing rally into a 
high-stakes spectacle.  With neo-Nazi groups in neighboring 
countries stating their solidarity with their "brethren" 
against a "communist-like" local government in Prague; strong 
reaction from the Jewish community, which promised 
counter-demonstrations and considered direct action to 
prevent the marches from occurring; and permission by the 
city to far-left anti-fascists groups to demonstrate at the 
same time and place as the neo-Nazis had proposed, the event 
that took place November 10 took on a life of its own, 
overshadowing what had started out as a free-speech debate. 
 
¶6. (U) Throughout the legal battles, high-level Czech 
politicians, including President Klaus, former President 
Havel, and Prime Minister Topolanek came out strongly against 
the marches and appealed to authorities against granting 
legal cover to what they feared would be incitement to hatred 
and violence.  The legal wrangling also attracted the 
unwanted attention of foreign extremist groups.  According to 
Minister of the Interior, Langer, last weekend the Czech 
border police mobilized to turn back neo-Nazis planning to 
travel to Prague.  Nevertheless, many managed to slip 
through, as over 90 of those later arrested were foreigners. 
 
 
PRAGUE 00001225  002 OF 003 
 
 
¶7. (U) The events of November 10 began with prayer services 
in the Jewish quarter to commemorate the 69th anniversary of 
Kristallnacht.  Near-freezing temperatures failed to deter 
almost a thousand people from attending a prayer vigil in 
front of the Old Synagogue, and thousands of ordinary 
citizens took part in well-organized gatherings on Old Town 
Square, handing out leaflets, and listening to speeches by 
Holocaust survivors warning against a resurgence of extremism 
in Europe. Security was unusually tight, with more than 1400 
riot police lining the streets and sealing off entrances to 
alleys and side streets to block right-wing activists who 
vowed to demonstrate even without a permit.  Police efforts 
were largely successful, as few neo-Nazis entered the protest 
area; most were headed off on their way to the city center. 
 
ANARCHISTS SPOIL THE SHOW 
¶8. (U) The peace and quiet that largely characterized the 
day, however, was shattered late-afternoon after 
approximately two thousand left-wing anarchists, mostly 
Czechs, shouting anti-fascist slogans and waving flags 
showing fists crushing swastikas and a figure kicking another 
figure under the banner: "Good night, White Pride" began a 
counter-march through the Jewish quarter.  There they met 
heavily armed riot police with APCs and anti-riot gates meant 
to stop opposing sides from confronting each other. 
 
¶9. (U)  Hundreds of anarchists filled the area and, believing 
that neo-Nazis were marching on the other side of the 
blockade, surged toward the barriers, with a group of about a 
dozen breaking through the cordon.  Horse-mounted police 
moved to re-establish order, but by then the crowd's mood had 
turned ugly.  With nary a neo-Nazi in sight, and shouting 
"Anti-Fa! Anti-Fa!" (short for "Anti-Fascist"), the 
anarchists turned their anger on the police, striking at them 
with nightsticks and clubs made from protest banner handles. 
Several demonstrators lobbed incendiary devices over the 
crowd's head, and loud explosions erupted sporadically for 
the next several minutes, filling the area with dense smoke 
and making it difficult to breathe.  A tense standoff 
followed where it appeared that the police would mount tough 
counter-measures or a stampede would ensue.  However, the 
police maintained their positions and only forced protesters 
away from the barriers with their riot shields.  (NOTE: While 
conflict came to characterize the conditions at the end of 
the day in the Jewish quarter, most other areas of the city 
continued to function as normal throughout the day. END NOTE) 
 
CAUGHT BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE 
¶10. (U) After the rallies and protests concluded, local 
community leaders expressed overall satisfaction with the 
high turnout of supporters who had effectively marginalized 
the much smaller right-wing presence.  However, the presence 
of thousands of anarchists at a largely peaceful event gave 
rise to the question of whether officials, admittedly bound 
by court decisions that require strict interpretation of 
applications to demonstrate, had inadvertently benefited 
left-wing anarchists by giving them a highly-visible platform 
from which to project their radical views.  While the 
question of whether right-wing extremism was on the ascendant 
seemed to be decisively answered in the negative, the 
question of left-wing extremism, thriving on confrontations 
with authority figures, was less easy to answer. 
 
¶11. (U) COMMENT:  From a rule of law standpoint, the Czech 
authorities demonstrated that they were up to the task of 
maintaining order under difficult circumstances, without 
resorting to the aggressive tactics that characterized past 
confrontations, such as the case of human rights activist, 
Katerina Jacques.  (Jacques, the government's former human 
rights ombudsman, and now a member of parliament from the 
Green party, was assaulted by police during 2006 
counter-demonstrations against a far-right gathering in 
Prague.)  The GOCR's commitment to providing an orderly 
environment during which advocates can express free, even 
unpopular, speech was reflected in the fact that the Czech 
government spent as much on the weekend's public safety 
operations as they had spent on last summer's POTUS visit to 
Prague.  The government will have its next opportunity to 
show this restrained but robust approach on November 17, the 
anniversary of the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when demonstrators 
will square off again over a number of current hot-button 
social and political issues, such as the war in Iraq and the 
proposed radar installation. 
 
¶12. (U) COMMENT CONT: In a November 14 op-ed piece in the 
center-left daily Pravo, President Klaus pointed the finger 
of responsibility for the extremist phenomenon not only at 
the extremists but also at the Czech society from which they 
come.  Klaus questioned whether the seeds of extremism in the 
Czech Republic do not lie in a general decline of moral 
values in Czech society in recent years.  He went on to say 
 
PRAGUE 00001225  003 OF 003 
 
 
that in taking down barriers, Czechs may have also 
inadvertently erased limits that would have kept extremism in 
check. Indeed, it is fair to wonder whether the high-level 
interest shown by community and political leaders on the 
topic of extremism will endure beyond the current headlines. 
 
¶13. (U) COMMENT CONT: Long-term, it appears that more work 
needs to be done to curb the lure of extremism, especially 
among the youth.  According to Charles University lecturer 
and expert on extremism, Zdenek Zboril, this is a critical 
challenge facing Czech leaders today.  Zboril stated that it 
was incumbent on Czech politicians and society at large to 
assimilate at-risk youth as quickly as possible, noting that 
"these young people will be with us for the next fifty or 
more years."  However, on a more immediate basis, the 
government needs to decide how it will deal with the same 
problem before next year, when all sides of the controversy 
will file their paperwork and look to express their vastly 
different opinions once again.  Lacking clear judicial 
precedent, the government may need to revisit the substance 
of the law in question, and ask itself the difficult question 
of how much free speech is too much. END COMMENT 
Graber