Hammer and Sickle - Controversy and Legal Status

Controversy and Legal Status

The hammer and sickle remain a popular symbol amongst communists and certain other leftists worldwide. In most countries, there are no laws restricting the use of the symbol, so it is legal to display it publicly. This includes the majority of European countries, especially Western Europe. Two nightclubs in Austin, TX (Molotov and Red7) include the hammer and sickle in their logo.

However, in several countries in Eastern Europe, there are laws that define the hammer and sickle as the symbol of a "totalitarian and criminal ideology", and the public display of the hammer and sickle and other communist symbols such as the red star is considered a criminal offence. Hungary, Lithuania, and Moldova have banned the symbol along with other communist symbols. A similar law was considered in Estonia, but eventually failed in a parliamentary committee. The foreign ministers of Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic called for an EU-wide ban on communist symbols in 2010, urging the EU "to criminalize the approval, denial or belittling of communist crimes" and stating that "the denial of such crimes should be treated the same way as the denial of the Holocaust and must be banned by law".