EU Czech president signs law criminalising communist propaganda - Czech president signs off on ban equating the promotion of communist ideology with Nazi propaganda, triggering backlash from leftist party ahead of October elections.

Czech President Petr Pavel looks on during the award ceremony of the German-Czech student video competition "Never Again!/Už nikdy více!" at Bellevue Palace in Berlin, Germany, 09 July 2025.
EPA/Filip Singer

PRAGUE – 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.

The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM), led by MEP Kateřina Konečná and now part of a new electoral alliance called “Stačilo” (“Enough”), condemned the move as politically motivated.

“This is yet another failed attempt to push KSČM outside the law and intimidate critics of the current regime,” the party said.

It remains unclear how the new law will be applied to parties like KSČM. The party currently holds no seats in parliament, but recent polls put its alliance at 5% – enough to return to the lower house in October’s elections.

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[IAmNotAlpharius]

It’s nice to see if cut the other way for once.

 

[Black Man Underwear]

Common Czech W.

 

[Epikusername4]

why couldnt the rest of europe be like czechia

 

[Maggots on a Train v2]

Somebody finally got way too damn tired.

 

[CaptainAutism69]

LOL, Pavel was a member of the communist party, and served in military intellegence. He only changed flag after the revolution because he saw which way the wind was blowing.
Communist ideology is dead anyway, so this doesn't really do anything other than give the govt more tools to control through misuse.

 

[Wood]

This is probably only aimed at KSCM, which supported Babis in the past and is pretty "eurosceptic".
If they were serious they'd have to ban like 95% of the NGOs, close half the schools and leave the EU.

 

["Controlled Demolition"]

LOL, Pavel was a member of the communist party, and served in military intellegence. He only changed flag after the revolution because he saw which way the wind was blowing.
Communist ideology is dead anyway, so this doesn't really do anything other than give the govt more tools to control through misuse.

Literally everyone of any standing was forced to be in the communist party. If you wanted to be a politician, any job in the army, hell, even a doctor, you had to be a part of the communist party. Same across most of the Soviet bloc. Of course people are going to change allegiance once they have the freedom to do so. And considering there are still literal communist, or at least pure socialist political parties in essentially every post-soviet state, communism is hardly "dead". Waning, but not dead.
Contrast this with Germany, where the one #based political party faces attempt after attempt to make their very existence illegal, yet they still nearly top every popularity chart, while the communist parties supposedly targeted with laws that "push them out of the law" have the lowest number of members in their history. KSČM in particular had 393,494 votes in the senate in 1996; in 2024, they had 14,321 and did not get a single seat. As of 2024 they list 16000 registered members, when in 1946 they had over 1 million members. This new law effectively formalizes the general sentiment of the state, and serves to align it further away from Russia and its past. And it might be convenient when dealing with Russia and China.

 

[The Entity]

It’s nice to see if cut the other way for once.

There are a few countries in europe criminalizing the "denial of crimes committed by communists" yet you never see people get taken to prison for it like with the holohoax shit.
So I guess we will see how this will look like in practice.

This is probably only aimed at KSCM, which supported Babis in the past and is pretty "eurosceptic".
If they were serious they'd have to ban like 95% of the NGOs, close half the schools and leave the EU.

But I am guessing it will be just like this and not actually enforced against hostile foreign ngo's.

 

[CaptainAutism69]

This is probably only aimed at KSCM, which supported Babis in the past and is pretty "eurosceptic".
If they were serious they'd have to ban like 95% of the NGOs, close half the schools and leave the EU.

Yep, elections are coming in September and Babis is the worst according to the current regime and must be stopped at all costs.

 

[LeChampion1992]

There are two ways to deal with these extremist factions either you make examples of both equally and strongly like here or you drown them out with other cultures and fandoms.
You either deal with them like chekia or deal with them like the US/Japan.

 

[CaptainAutism69]

There are two ways to deal with these extremist factions either you make examples of both equally and strongly like here or you drown them out with other cultures and fandoms.
You either deal with them like chekia or deal with them like the US/Japan.

There really isn't a commuinist faction worth a damn in The Czech Republic, but do expect some people to fall victim of it, and they will just so happen to be a threat to the current parties.

 

[The greater a'tuin]

why couldnt the rest of europe be like czechia

The rest of the world should follow suit.

 

[Snekposter]

Literally everyone of any standing was forced to be in the communist party. If you wanted to be a politician, any job in the army, hell, even a doctor, you had to be a part of the communist party. Same across most of the Soviet bloc. Of course people are going to change allegiance once they have the freedom to do so. And considering there are still literal communist, or at least pure socialist political parties in essentially every post-soviet state, communism is hardly "dead". Waning, but not dead.
Contrast this with Germany, where the one #based political party faces attempt after attempt to make their very existence illegal, yet they still nearly top every popularity chart, while the communist parties supposedly targeted with laws that "push them out of the law" have the lowest number of members in their history. KSČM in particular had 393,494 votes in the senate in 1996; in 2024, they had 14,321 and did not get a single seat. As of 2024 they list 16000 registered members, when in 1946 they had over 1 million members. This new law effectively formalizes the general sentiment of the state, and serves to align it further away from Russia and its past. And it might be convenient when dealing with Russia and China.

Never forget Kiwis that when Communist Poland allowed somewhat-free elections not a single Communist was elected, even in places where they ran unopposed thanks to minimum vote thresholds.

 

[Eternal Gopnik]

Literally everyone of any standing was forced to be in the communist party. If you wanted to be a politician, any job in the army, hell, even a doctor, you had to be a part of the communist party. Same across most of the Soviet bloc. Of course people are going to change allegiance once they have the freedom to do so. And considering there are still literal communist, or at least pure socialist political parties in essentially every post-soviet state, communism is hardly "dead". Waning, but not dead.
Contrast this with Germany, where the one #based political party faces attempt after attempt to make their very existence illegal, yet they still nearly top every popularity chart, while the communist parties supposedly targeted with laws that "push them out of the law" have the lowest number of members in their history. KSČM in particular had 393,494 votes in the senate in 1996; in 2024, they had 14,321 and did not get a single seat. As of 2024 they list 16000 registered members, when in 1946 they had over 1 million members. This new law effectively formalizes the general sentiment of the state, and serves to align it further away from Russia and its past. And it might be convenient when dealing with Russia and China.

This is a complete and utter lie spread by careerist whores making excuses for what they did before 1990. Being a party member was absolutely not a requirement for anything, it just made things easier. There were plenty of people doing lucrative jobs without ever getting their hands dirty.

On top of that, Pavel wasn't just a careerist, he was a fanatical Bolshevik. This motherfucker has a letter on file from back when he was in high school where he's complaining that the other military brats were bullying him for being too much of a fanatical pinko. He was the kind of a piece of shit that the other communists thought he was scum.

 

["Controlled Demolition"]

This is a complete and utter lie spread by careerist whores making excuses for what they did before 1990. Being a party member was absolutely not a requirement for anything, it just made things easier. There were plenty of people doing lucrative jobs without ever getting their hands dirty.

On top of that, Pavel wasn't just a careerist, he was a fanatical Bolshevik. This motherfucker has a letter on file from back when he was in high school where he's complaining that the other military brats were bullying him for being too much of a fanatical pinko. He was the kind of a piece of shit that the other communists thought he was scum.

Can you post that letter? Because it sounds like the exact kind of shit that gopniks would dig up from someone's past and conveniently unearth on the internet to sow fear, uncertainty and doubt. That's the only thing Russians are actually good at: spreading FUD and making people think various people are Kremlin-aligned so they turn on them.

 

[ilovejews]

Can you post that letter? Because it sounds like the exact kind of shit that gopniks would dig up from someone's past and conveniently unearth on the internet to sow fear, uncertainty and doubt. That's the only thing Russians are actually good at: spreading FUD and making people think various people are Kremlin-aligned so they turn on them.

I've got this and I don't need more. Yeah, just doing what he had to my ass.
Muh Kremlin's not gonna cut it, or some other schizo theory.
It's like you old fucks except everybody keep being anti-russia because you said so, not realizing it's not the fucking 80's anymore. While we're at it, you can stick your fake revolution up your ass, too.

 

[cybertoaster]

It was always weird seeing how one ideology that killed millions was vilified for that when one that killed hundreds of millions got lionized.

 

[CaptainAutism69]

Can you post that letter? Because it sounds like the exact kind of shit that gopniks would dig up from someone's past and conveniently unearth on the internet to sow fear, uncertainty and doubt. That's the only thing Russians are actually good at: spreading FUD and making people think various people are Kremlin-aligned so they turn on them.

These Russians...are they in the room with us right now?
Last year every school in the Czech Republic recieved mutiple bomb threats. Last week they finally arrested a Ukrainian national in Dnipro for carrying out the attacks, but the govt still won't stop blaming Russia, now pivoting to 'Russian speaker' in the media, rather than Ukrainian National.

 

[2mm and 99 others]

Of course, he knows where the idea of bolshevism lives on. This act is just discarding an old logo and a party that is, by having anti-EU stances, not bolshevik enough in the desired ways and outlived its usefulness, also its voter base is dying out. Just fractions of the left fighting each other in their eternal war for power, nothing new under the sun. Back then in the 50's, they'd get framed in a fake process and hanged, now, them being banned from public life is all that can be done.

I might seem ungrateful, but somehow I just don't feel any less afraid of further screw tightening.