Criminalizing communism is not protecting Czech democracy but undermining it

 Manythanks to Marián Lóži for his critical remarks on this text.On17 July 2025, President Petr Pavel signed into law an amendment tothe Czech Criminal Code, which now explicitly criminalizes the“promotion of Nazism and communism.” At first glance, theamendment to §403 of the Criminal Code closes a historical gap. Inreality, it opens a political and legal minefield. The revisedparagraph reads:

Whoeverestablishes, supports, or promotes Nazi, communist, or othermovements that demonstrably aim to suppress human rights andfreedoms, or that advocate racial, ethnic, national, religious, orclass hatred, shall be punished by imprisonment of one to five years.Thenovelty lies in the insertion of the words “Nazi, communist, orother” into a sentence that previously referred only to “movements”aiming to suppress rights. The reasoningbehind this insertion (n°6598), authored by MPs Martin Dlouhý,Marek Benda, and Šimon Heller, is far from neutral: