The 17 February ruling by the Czech Supreme Administrative Court which disbands the Workers' Party is clear: the "populist, xenophobic and racist" Workers' Party shares the "ideology of Hitler's Nazi Party" and represents a significant danger to Czech democracy. Although delighted by news of the ban, Lidové Noviny wonders if it will prove to be effective. In a report entitled Workers' Party loses, but will re-emerge elsewhere," it notes that Party leader Tomáš Vandas, who announced that "the verdict will be good publicity," is preparing to re-name the political grouping in time for general elections on 29 March. However, the Prague daily adds that the verdict may set a useful "precedent that could be applied to dissolve the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia." A Czech senate commission is attempting to have the successor of the Soviet-era single ruling party, currently the third largest force in the Czech parliament, classified as extremist.
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