SLOVAKIA’s Supreme Court ruled on July 1 that action taken by the Interior Ministry to dissolve the ultra-right-wing Slovenská Pospolitosť civic organisation in November 2008 was not supported by the law as the ministry did not meet all conditions necessary to order that the association be disbanded. The head of Slovenská Pospolitosť, Ivan Sýkora, confirmed that the association would resume its activities, the SITA newswire reported.
The Interior Ministry says that it will again pursue the dissolution of the association by eliminating all the formal and process deficiencies noted in the court’s ruling.
“As the association has not refrained from its unlawful operation we are ready to proceed again on its dissolution in the shortest possible time,” Interior Ministry spokesperson Erik Tomáš wrote in a press release.
Sýkora said that the Interior Ministry had violated the procedures for delivering notice of the association’s dissolution. The ministry claims they tried to deliver the notice of dissolution in person as well as by mail but that representatives of the association were not reachable, which the ministry considers suspicious.
The Slovak National Party (SNS) leader, Ján Slota, said the Supreme Court’s verdict surprised him. He said that he maintains his opinion that it is necessary to dissolve an extremist association such as Slovenská Pospolitosť because the organisation does not have a place in a modern European country, SITA reported. The representatives of Slovenská Pospolitosť had earlier said that the SNS party leaders were traitors to the nation.
The ministry decided to dissolve the civic association on November 12, 2008, arguing that it instigated hatred for national, racial, religious and political reasons while seeking to reach its aims with methods that are at odds with the Slovak constitution and laws.
