Cabinet to request ban on extremist Workers’ Party

Prime Minister Jan Fischer told reporters on Wednesday that his cabinet would petition the country’s Supreme Administrative Court asking it to ban the extremist Workers’ Party. The petition was drafted with the help of a respected attorney, Tomáš Sokol, and Mr Fischer said his government was confident the request was well-grounded.

Experts consider the right-wing nationalist Workers’ Party to be a gathering of extremists linked to the country’s neo-Nazi movement. In November 2008, the party organized a march on a Romany ghetto in the northern town of Litvínov which ended in violent clashes with the police. Shortly after the former Czech government tried to get the party banned by the court; but the request was denied in March of this year, on the grounds that the appeal was poorly grounded.