Czech Supreme Court suspends activities of ultra-right party

The Czech Supreme Court suspended the ultra-right Republican Party of Miroslav Sládek on Wednesday. The court made the decision because the party failed to submit its annual financial reports to the lower house of parliament for the years 2004 to 2006, which is obligatory for all political parties.

The Republican Party of Miroslav Sládek – headed by the populist politician of the same name – is the successor to the populist Czechoslovak Republican Party, which was represented in the Czech parliament in the 1990s on a platform espousing nationalistic and xenophobic views. The ruling means that the party cannot be actively involved in politics for a year and it will be banned forever if it fails to get its affairs in order within the next 12 months. The motion for the party’s suspension was filed at the court by the Czech government.