Musicians slam Czech anti-Roma party after copyright breach
(PRAGUE) - Finnish cello rock group Apocalyptica on Monday threatened legal action against a fringe Czech party who set a call for a "final solution" to Europe's "gypsy question" to their music in a European election campaign advert.
"We are examining the possibility of filing a complaint in the coming days" against the National Party (Narodni Strana, NS), said Alena Titzova, a spokeswoman for the Czech subsidiary of the group's record label, Universal.
The song, "Path," from the classically trained group's album "Cult," was used in the advert without permission from the music publishers.
Czech public television announced last week it had withdrawn the election broadcast.
Apocalyptica's management released a statement stressing the group's support for ethnic minorities, human rights and the European Union, CTK news agency reported.
Czech far-right demonstrations against Roma are frequent, and on Sunday police in Prague detained about 40 members of another fringe party.
There are around 300,000 Roma in the Czech Republic, a country of over 10 million people.
An estimated 375 million voters across the 27-nation EU bloc will elect 736 deputies for a five-year term at the European parliament between June 4-7.
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