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Slovakia Outlawed the Communist Party

Slovakia recently passed a law declaring that the former Czechoslovak Communist Party is a criminal organization and prohibited displaying communism and Nazi fascist signs in public. After Ukraine, the three Baltic countries, and Poland, Slovakia became an additional Eastern European country that took similar actions.

The Slovak Parliament passed a legal amendment on November 4, declaring that the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, which was in power from 1948 to 1990, and the branch of the Communist Party in Slovakia are criminal organizations. The reason is that the Communist Party suppressed civil society and restricted the freedom of the people during its ruling period.

The law prohibits signs that symbolize communism, Nazi fascism and other authoritarian political systems from being on monuments and commemorative plaques. It also prohibits naming streets, squares, and other public places after Communists and Nazi fascists. The vast majority of parliamentarians voted affirmatively to support the passage of this law.

In recent years, countries such as Ukraine, the three Baltic countries, and Poland, which have a history of communist rule, have adopted a number of methods to remove communism.  They denounced that communism as being the equivalent of Nazi fascism. The European Parliament also passed corresponding resolutions. Slovakia, once a member of the socialist camp, therefore became another Eastern European country that took similar actions. As early as 1993, in a law on the communist system, the Czech Republic, Slovakia’s neighboring country, defined the Czechoslovak Communist Party as a criminal organization .

Like the Communist Parties in many countries in the world, the Czechoslovak Communist Party was formed in the early 1920s and subsequently received leadership and commands from the Communist International and Moscow. The Czechoslovak Communist Party is also closely linked to political persecution and to bloody repression.

Source: Voice of America, November 6, 2020
https://www.voachinese.com/a/Slovakia-passed-a-bill-to-ban-communist-symbols-20201106/5650850.html