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Central Europe
January 26, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 11
Poland cracks down on neo-Nazi group
bne IntelliNews
Poland is moving to ban a Nazi organization exposed by the media, prosecutors said on Janu- ary 23. Three people involved in the organization, including its leader, have been arrested.
The crackdown happened after last week’s report by US-owned broadcaster TVN whose journalists went undercover to a secret event by a group named Pride and Modernity. The group’s members, dressed in Nazi uniforms and surrounded by swastika flags, were seen celebrating the birthday of Adolf Hitler.
The report reverberated in Poland, which lost six million of its people during the nearly six-year long brutal occupation by Nazi Germany in the second world war. Poland’s Prime Minister Ma- teusz Morawiecki said there would be no toler- ance of “this type of behaviour and symbols”.
“This is trampling on the memory of our ances- tors and their heroic fight for Poland that is just
and free of hate,” Morawiecki said on Twitter. Three men were arrested on charges of propagating fascism. Their flats were searched to reveal weapons and munitions, as well as Nazi propaganda and paraphernalia such as uniforms or flags.
Prosecutors are also working to ban Pride and Modernity.
The crackdown did not go without political tus- sling between the Law and Justice (PiS) govern- ment and opposition, both sides accusing each other of tolerating far right and neo-Nazi groups for years.
The targeted organisation does not appear to be an isolated case, as reports of similar gatherings have long circulated in the Polish media, while the annual march on Poland’s Independence Day in November regularly features far right groups.
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