The Slovak Togetherness () was a civil society group in Slovakia. 'Slovenská' means "Slovak"; 'pospolitosť' is a rather archaic word meaning "solidarity" or "community" or "togetherness". The group has been characterised as "extremist."
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. 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 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 Hlinka Guard.Érvénytelen a Szlovák Testvériség feloszlatásáról hozott döntés After that the charges were dropped as it "couldn't be proven that the phrase itself constitutes the promotion of fascism".Szlovákiában nem büntetik a fasiszta köszöntést 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 and religious minorities."American embassy report on Slovakia
Dissolution and continuance 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, with national minorities being represented into a category grouping all minorities, and have Parliament 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. Also in this form it was temporarily banned by the Interior Ministry for "activities that incite hatred and national, racial, religious as well as political intolerance",Slovak Supreme Court overrules outlawing of extremist group Slovenská PospolitosťNajvyšší súd zrušil rozpustenie Slovenskej pospolitosti (Slovak) - ČTK, TASR, SITA 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.Supreme Court Cancels Dissolution of Slovenska Pospolitost
Controversy In August 2009 the group led a march in protest at the local Roma community during which members threw rocks and bottles at police, resulting in over 30 arrests and seven injuries."How to annoy neighbours and alienate people in Slovakia" accessed 25 January 2009
Foreign relations They have been associated with the European National Front and support their ideas of Pan-European nationalist unity. They hosted a meeting for some affiliated groups in 2004.www.nationalvanguard.org
References
External links Their flag and those of other Slovak movements Official Web Site of Slovenská pospolitosť - Národná strana