Jaroslav Staník, the secretary of the far right Freedom and Direct Democracy party, has called for Jews and Roma to be gassed.
Stanik exclaimed “Jews, gays and Roma should be gassed” in Parliament, causing a confrontation with other parties. This occurred in a private restaurant that is part of the Parliament complex and which is not accessible to the public.
One eyewitness, Marek Černoch, claims that Stanik said that Jewish and Roma babies should be shot, commenting that he “demanded that all homosexuals, Roma, and Jews should be shot immediately after they have been born. He also verbally attacked the women that were present with gross insults”.
His calls to gas Jews, homosexuals and Roma have been confirmed by several eyewitnesses.
Stanik is reportedly a close ally of the party leader, Tomio Okamura.
The far right party holds 22 out of 200 seats in the country’s lower house.
Such comments obviously represent some of the worst verbal displays of antisemitism we see in contemporary Europe, a fact made all the more disturbing by the fact that they originate from an elected official. We will report on any action taken against Stanik, either by the authorities or by his own party.