Organisations which glorify German Nazi and other totalitarian regimes and use their symbols should be delegalised, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said after a radical nationalist group was recently unmasked.

Morawiecki said the Nazi and communist regimes “were the greatest tragedies of the 20th century and among the greatest tragedies in the history of mankind, and young people… who use [fascist and communist] symbols … are ignorant and should be punished”.

Deputy Justice Minister Patryk Jaki said that promoting fascism was both illegal and immoral and that all possible steps would be taken to make the Pride and Modernity organisation illegal.

Another deputy justice minister, Michał Wójcik, said it was worth considering legal reform to make it easier to delegalise organisations which “grossly or persistently” break the law.

Private broadcaster TVN last weekend aired footage from its investigation into radical nationalist groups in Poland, which included recordings of Pride and Modernity's celebrations of Hitler’s birth anniversary last May.

The revelations caused outrage and condemnation in Poland, a country which suffered massive damage after being invaded by Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany in World War II.

The events filmed secretly by TVN featured Nazi German flags, an altar to the Nazi German leader, and the “Sieg Heil” Hitler salute.

Prosecutors have launched a probe into the Pride and Modernity organisation after TVN aired its exposé and at least three people suspected of being involved in the event have been detained and charged with propagating fascism, which is illegal in Poland and carries a penalty of up to two years in jail. (vb/pk)

Source: IAR, PAP