Six young women remained in custody Tuesday following a weekend raid at a neo-Nazi party at a restaurant in central Slovakia, police reported. Altogether police charged 17 of the estimated 40 people at the party with political extremism and promoting a movement that denies human rights.

The raid came as the 3-month-old Slovak government continued fighting international charges that it encourages ethnic strife. The coalition government includes a nationalist party leader who often clashes with ethnic Hungarian leaders.

Slovakia’s neo-Nazi movement attracts mainly young people but also exploits nostalgic sentiments from the generation that survived World War II, when the country was ruled by a puppet state of the German Nazis.

Police said participants at Saturday night’s gathering in the mountain village of Turecka were between ages 18 and 28. They wore Nazi garb and tattoos, shouted slogans and watched a video that police seized.

TRS