After the publication of a safety report by the Czech newspaper "Mlada Fronta Dnes", the Eastern European security agencies have expressed concern about the increase of extreme right-wing paramilitary groups whose members are possessing heavy weapons and in some cases of armored vehicles and tanks.
The report, prepared by the Security Information Service (BIS), the leading national domestic intelligence agency, provided details of the recent activities of a group calling itself the "National Home Guard", an extreme right-wing anti-immigration militia that experts say it consists of at least 3.000 members spread across the Czech Republic.
Although this is officially denied, it is believed that the group is the armed wing of National Democracy, a far-right nationalist political party that received 30.000 votes during the last presidential election of the 12 and 13 January 2018.
The BRI report states that the "National Home Guard" has 90 branches across the nation and is now in possession of significant quantities of weapons, some of which were illegally introduced into the Czech Republic from Libya. Many of the organization's largest branches in the cities of Prague, Ostrava and elsewhere regularly organize weapons training sessions in secret locations. In some smaller towns in the country, where police presence is limited, the "National Home Guard" organized armed patrols targeting immigrants, especially those from predominantly Muslim countries. Furthermore, according to the BIS report, the group has recently begun to heavily recruit the ranks of the police and the Czech armed forces.
The news of "Mlada Fronta Dnes" comes just a month after a BBC report revealed that two extreme right-wing militias in Slovakia had started training at a paramilitary base that contained armored vehicles and tanks. The base belongs to the Night Wolves, a motorcycle gang known for its anti-immigrant and anti-European Union position.
Recently, however, Night Wolves trained in paramilitary tactics in coordination with two other groups, the Slovak Levies and NV Europe, the BBC said.
Located in the village of Dolna Krupa, at 45 miles north of the Slovak capital, Bratislava, the base houses several tanks and other armored vehicles. The Night Wolves claim that the structure houses a WWII museum, and this would explain the presence of military vehicles. The BBC, which reiterated that the group is suspected of using the base to train the Ukrainian pro-Russia separatists and other paramilitary groups in Eastern Europe, is of different opinion.
The BIS report states that far-right paramilitary groups in Czechoslovakia and Slovakia - which until the 1993 were regions of unified Czechoslovakia - maintain regular contacts with each other.