Following the steps of Poland, the Parliament of Slovakia passed a despicable anti-communist amendment which distorts history and sets into grave danger the democratic and political rights in the country.
More specifically, the amendment, which was prepared by the conservative coalition government of Igor Matovič and passed by the Parliament on November 4th, declares the Czechoslovak Communist Party (as well as the current Communist Party of Slovakia) as “criminal organizations”! The amendment is added to the 1996 anti-communist law on “Immorality and Illegality of the Communist System” and will be put into effect on December 1st.
More specifically, the amendment, which was prepared by the conservative coalition government of Igor Matovič and passed by the Parliament on November 4th, declares the Czechoslovak Communist Party (as well as the current Communist Party of Slovakia) as “criminal organizations”! The amendment is added to the 1996 anti-communist law on “Immorality and Illegality of the Communist System” and will be put into effect on December 1st.
The Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS) has already denounced the law and called the President of the country, Zuzana Čaputová, not to sign this legal monstrosity.
The issue was brought to the EU Parliament by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), with a question submitted to the European Commission by Party's MEP Kostas Papadakis.
Among others, Papadakis points out:
“This amendment equates socialist states with Nazi-fascist regimes, calls for the removal of monuments, street names from the socialist period and opposes any new reference linked to socialist Czechoslovakia. It labels the Communist Party of Slovakia as a criminal and reprehensible organization while any violation of the above directions is prosecuted by the law.
The above repressive law seeks to criminalize the communist ideology and impose persecutions against the activity of the communists and the workers-people's forces that fight against the anti-people barbarity”.
The KKE MEP added:
“Workers and their families in present-day Slovakia and throughout Europe face the nightmarish reality of capitalism on a daily basis: The tragic deficiencies in Healthcare in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the huge unemployment and poverty, the commercialization and privatization of basic rights. This reality has nothing to do with the socialism that the people in Europe experienced, where Health and Welfare was a guaranteed right for everyone, under the responsibility of the state and not as it happens today in many capitalist countries where unprotected people die and doctors decide who will live and will die. The socialist state guaranteed the right to work, leisure, holidays, education for the people and their children, safety for the future. There was no unemployment and misery that hundreds of millions of people face today, even in the most advanced capitalist states. This because the state was operating with a focus on the people's needs and not on the profitability of monopoly groups as is the case today.
The Slovak people can compare socialism and capitalism. Despite the criminalizations, the bans, the distortions and the anti-communist propaganda, it is impossible for the wheel of history to turn backwards, no matter how hard they try.”
Based on the above, Kostas Papadakis submitted to the EU Commission the following questions:
“What is the Commission's position on the unacceptable anti-communist law and the amendment voted by the Slovak Parliament and which promotes the prohibitions on communist ideology, its symbols while it characterizes the Communist Parties as “criminal and reprehensible” organization?
How does the Commission positions itself on the fact that the official EU policy, as it has been recorded in the decisions of its institutions, legitimizes and encourages such unacceptable and anti-democratic laws?”.
Based on the above, Kostas Papadakis submitted to the EU Commission the following questions:
“What is the Commission's position on the unacceptable anti-communist law and the amendment voted by the Slovak Parliament and which promotes the prohibitions on communist ideology, its symbols while it characterizes the Communist Parties as “criminal and reprehensible” organization?
How does the Commission positions itself on the fact that the official EU policy, as it has been recorded in the decisions of its institutions, legitimizes and encourages such unacceptable and anti-democratic laws?”.
