Czech rightists to protest in Pilsen

Extreme-right demonstrators will march in the Czech city of Pilsen.

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Extreme-right demonstrators will march in the Czech city of Pilsen.

The planned Jan. 19 march was organized to protest the November police crackdown on a neo-Nazi march in Prague’s Jewish Quarter.

A representative of the Pilsen Jewish community, Vera Spirkova, told the Czech News Agency that the march date was likely chosen to coincide with the 65th anniversary of the first transport of Pilsen Jews to concentration camps on Jan. 18, 1943. Nearly all of Pilsen’s 3,000 Jews were killed by the Nazis during World War II.

The thwarted Prague march was scheduled on the anniversary of the 1938 Kristallnacht, when the Nazis orchestrated attacks against Jews and Jewish property in Austria and Germany.

The leader of the planned Pilsen march, Vaclav Bures, is closely tied to neo-Nazi groups, according to the Czech press.

Pilsen city authorities say have not been able to prevent the march, as Bures applied for and received a demonstration permit.

 

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