Czech President Petr Pavel signed a landmark amendment to the Criminal Code, criminalising the promotion of communist ideology, placing it on par with Nazi propaganda.
The amendment on July 17 updated Section 403 of the Criminal Code, which prohibited the “establishment, support and promotion of a movement aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms”, including those that promoted “racial, ethnic, national, religious or class resentment”.
Penalties included a prison term of up to five years, increasing to three to 10 years in cases involving aggravating circumstances.
It also forced the Communist Party to distance itself from its dark past.
Under the revised language, Communist and Fascist propaganda were now legally treated as equivalent.
This move, driven by historical institutions including the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, addressed a perceived legal imbalance, as Nazi propaganda was already strictly penalised, while Communist symbols were often tolerated.
Supporters, such as MP Michal Zuna of the TOP 09 party, said they viewed it as a symbolic act of justice for victims of the Communist regime (1948–1989), which executed people and imprisoned dissidents including the late dissident Václav Havel.
Zuna emphasised the need to equate the two totalitarian ideologies, citing their shared history of oppression.
Martin Exner, a member of the Chamber of Deputies, said: “Executions of their opponents were perpetrated by both, concentration camps and gulags were run by both those regimes, antisemitism was part of both those regimes, a monopoly on power enforced through violence was part of both those regimes, occupation of neighbouring States was done both by Communism and Nazism, plans for violent world domination, again, were held by both the Nazis and the Communists.
“The ideology of fear and hatred was part of both those regimes, and here they differed only in the fact that the hatred in Nazism was racial and national, while the hatred in communism was based on class, but the means were always the same: camps, murders, totalitarianism.”
The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, quoted in Slovak newspaper Denník N on July 18, argued the new law corrected the “unfair distinction” between Nazism and Communism, noting that shops could sell Lenin-themed merchandise but not Nazi symbols.
Kamil Nedvědický, deputy director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, told a press conference: “At the roots of communist teachings and at the roots of Marxism, there is one word – violence. Karl Marx and his followers already spoke about the fact that change cannot occur without the use of violence.”
The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM), led by MEP Kateřina Konečná, said the move was politically motivated, calling it “discriminatory”.
“[Czech Prime Minister Petr] Fiala’s government is still responsible for introducing censorship, banning websites, harassing and persecuting political opponents and criminalising them, as well as dismissing people from their jobs for political reasons”, the party said.
“No one will ever silence the KSČM, nor will the values that the communists stand for – the values of international cooperation, solidarity, progress and peace.”
Czech Marxists said in a statement in June that the amendment was “a grievous insult to the victims of fascism and the thousands of communist partisans who gave their lives fighting it”.
“In reality, this amendment is a cynical distraction by the ruling class at a time when its authority is crumbling and living conditions are declining.
“Fiala’s government entered into crisis last September following a battering in regional and senatorial elections, which saw the near break-up of the coalition.
“The intention is clearly to divert the masses’ attention from the government’s woes by whipping up anti-communist demagogy”, they said.
