Ethnic Tension Simmers in the Czech Republic

 
 

Police at a Neo-Nazi rally in Duchcov, Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic’s ailing economy is one reason why we’re seeing a spike in hate crimes against the country’s Roma community. The latter remains vulnerable and ethnic tensions remain high, Tanweer Ali argues, and it’s Prague’s dubious political culture that is ultimately at fault.

By Tanweer Ali for Foreign Policy Centre (FPC)

The small town of Ceske Budejovice (Budweis in German) in the south of the Czech Republic is perhaps best known as the home of the Budweiser beer brand, or rather the two rival brands enmeshed in protracted legal disputes in dozens of countries. But this summer it was a series of ugly neo-Nazi parades in Ceske Budejovice that made the domestic news headlines.

Czech Election Won with Nationalism and Populism

Is the new Czech president from the left wing or the right wing? Neither, say German commentators. Rather, Milos Zeman is a populist who stopped at nothing, not even at the reopening of historical wounds between his country and Germany, on his way to Prague Castle.