civil society
Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.extremist
Extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a political or religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied shar ...
."
History
Creation
Slovenská pospolitosť was formed in 1996 to bring together sections of the local far right population and place them under the leadership of more astute
ideologues
An ideology is a set of beliefs or values attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely about belief in certain knowledge, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones". Form ...
. The group has links to the International Third Position and has posted details of its activities on their websites.
Governmental suppression
The movement has come under increasing pressure from the government of Slovakia in 2005, to the extent where the leading member Ján Kopunek has claimed that the Slovak police have been ordered to crush the group entirely. Since then,
Marian Kotleba
Marian Kotleba (; born 7 April 1977) is a Slovakia, Slovak politician and leader of the far-right, neo-Nazi political party Kotlebists – People's Party Our Slovakia ().
He served as the governor of Banská Bystrica Region from 2013 to 2017. He ...
has been charged with hate crimes ''in absentia''. Later, Kotleba was charged for finishing one of his speeches with " Na stráž!" the phrase used in the
fascist
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
Hlinka Guard. After that the charges were dropped as it "couldn't be proven that the phrase itself constitutes the promotion of fascism". However the American embassy in Bratislava characterised the group's activities as "commemorating the wartime fascist state and to spread messages of intolerance against
ethnic
An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...
In 2006, Kotleba tried to transform the group into a political party (Slovak Togetherness - National Party). The party was dissolved by the Supreme Court because of its non-compliance with the Constitution (restriction of universal suffrage by replacement of the party system with
corporatism
Corporatism is an ideology and political system of interest representation and policymaking whereby Corporate group (sociology), corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guild associations, come toget ...
, with national minorities being represented into a category grouping all minorities, and have Parlement representation only if their home country had a Slovak parlementiary representation) as the first and yet only dissolved political party in the modern history of Slovakia. The group then continued to exist as a
civil society
Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.Slovak Supreme Court overrules outlawing of extremist group Slovenská Pospolitosť /ref> /ref> but the Slovak Supreme Court reinstated the group, claiming that "the legal conditions for disbanding Slovenská Pospolitosť had not been met."
The group resumes operation unhindered.
Controversy
In August 2009 the group led a march in protest at the local
Roma
Roma or ROMA may refer to:
People, characters, figures, names
* Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas.
* Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun
* Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...
community during which members threw rocks and bottles at police, resulting in over 30 arrests and seven injuries.