Polish court powerless to ban anti-Semitic party, official says

There are no grounds for removing a vehemently anti-Semitic party from Poland’s party register because prosecutors so far have not sought such a decision, a court official said.

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(JTA) — A Polish court said there are no grounds for removing an anti-Semitic party from the party register because prosecutors have not sought such a decision.

Polskie Radio on Thursday quoted Maja Smoderek, a spokeswoman for Warsaw’s district court, as saying that the Together Party of the Slavonic Empire, which registered with the court in March, could not be removed from the list because “no prosecutor has lodged a complaint about the party.”

Since its registration, the party has been increasingly forthright in its anti-Semitic rhetoric, Polskie Radio reported.

“We know who runs Poland … it’s run by Jews, and particularly bad Jews,” Party leader Jan Kielb said recently in an interview with Rzeczpospolita daily.

Kielb’s party has no seats in parliament. It presented the 1,000 signatures and party statute required to register. Its charter speaks of the importance of “the Pole of true Slavonic blood.”

Professor Piotr Winczorek, a member of the State Tribunal which rules on the constitutionality of the highest offices of state, told Polskie Radio that the party was in violation of the constitution, which bans “activities of parties that call for racial hatred.”

He called on prosecutors to take steps to have the party removed from the register.

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