Nationalists are on the rise in Slovakia.

The People’s Party – Our Slovakia, led by charismatic rebel Marian Kotleba, is polling at 14% ahead of parliamentary elections next February. This will almost double the seats they won in 2016, putting them ahead of all the competing conservative and liberal parties and making them second only to the ruling socialist party, Smer, which is polling at 18.7%.

Kotleba is campaigning against organized gypsy crime, Zionist power, American influence and the European Union. They have combined this with a pro-family socialist economic platform, which will reassert Slovakian sovereignty, defeat high finance, and put the economy back in the hands of the struggling Slovakian people. The group is known for its volunteer projects and high levels of civic engagement.

They also honor the memory of an important Slovak independence leader, the Catholic Priest Jozef Tiso, who aligned with Germany during World War II.

Their fight for public space and representation has not been easy. After breaking into the parliament in 2016, The People’s Party’s political rivals attempted to ban the organization as a “neo-Nazi” threat to “democracy.” The courts found that banning the group would risk shaking public faith in the system even further.

Kotleba himself has been prosecuted for refusing to mince words about gypsy violence. He was fined 10,000 Euros in 2016 over comments he made on the subject. Last year a member of the People’s Party was expelled from the parliament for “hate speech.”

Statistics on “Roma” crime are difficult to find in the West and concerns on the matter are dismissed by neo-liberals as mindless bigotry, but in the United Kingdom the influx of Slovakian gypsies has caused outcry from locals. In Sheffield, a multicultural district, they beat and rob random elderly people in the street, causing public terror that has even caused black and Pakistani residents to complain.

In Glasgow, a criminal ring led by gypsies with Slovakian citizenship outraged Scottish courts after being busted for kidnapping and selling Slovakian girls to local Pakistani men over a five year period.

Across the continent, the influx of gypsies from Eastern Europe to the West has fueled disenchantment with the European Union’s free movement clause, including in leftist and liberal municipalities. The crisis is real.

Slovak media is now consolidating and targeting Kotleba and his group with propaganda. One instance they are trying to use was when Kotleba introduced a Rock Against Communism band, Biely odpor, who sang a song called “White Slovakia.” This may not have the effect on popular opinion the system expects.

The vice chair of the Progressive Party, the gypsy Irena Biháriová, is planning to use litigation against The People’s Party in a quest to cheat the electoral system. The Progressive Party, a coalition of pro-EU social liberals known for their affluent “hipster” base, is the party represented by president Zuzana Čaputová. While Western media hailed her victory last summer, her party is as of now polling third behind The People’s Party.