Czech President Petr Pavel on Thursday signed an amendment to the country’s criminal code that criminalises the promotion of communist ideology, placing it on the same footing as Nazi propaganda.
The revised legislation introduces prison sentences of up to five years for anyone who “establishes, supports or promotes Nazi, communist, or other movements which demonstrably aim to suppress human rights and freedoms or incite racial, ethnic, national, religious or class-based hatred.”
The change follows calls from Czech historical institutions, including the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, to correct what they viewed as a legal imbalance.
[…]
I guess that’s the same everywhere. There was a similar situation in Germany and Austria after World War II as former Nazi supporters made formidable careers in the public administration. From that point of view I feel somehow it is right to place all these authoritarian ideologies on equal footing. So I’d agree that it could prevent bad faith actors to make an apology for their crimes.
But my view is only that of an observer, I am among the lucky ones who never had to live under an autocratic regime. The Czech president and his generation certainly .know more on that.