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Around 2,500 people took part in August 24 anti-Roma demonstrations in eight cities throughout the Czech Republic, reports Lidové noviny
While some of the marches organised by far-right groups protesting against “police brutality, social injustice and black racism" - the term used for discrimination by the non-white community against caucasians - went ahead peacefully, in Ostrava, the country’s third largest city, hundreds of activists attempting to enter a Roma neighbourhood clashed with police who used tear gas. Around 60 people were arrested.
Meanwhile, in Prague, Lidové noviny reports that some 50 people attended a counter demonstration against rising ethnic tension organised by the sarcastically named, “No Czechs in the Czech Republic”.
The daily explains that for the country’s intelligence services —
… anti-Roma sentiment in a section of society represents an even greater threat to national security than the existence of small groups of far-right extremists.
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