Category Archives: Czech Republic

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Commemoration

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Czechia: Commemoration

On Monday, March 10, 2025, dozens of people commemorated the 82nd anniversary of the mass deportation of Roma and Sinti from Prague to the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp with a memorial service in Ruzyne, Prague. The participants, most of whom wore black clothing, laid floral wreaths at the wooden statue. The event, which has been held at this location for the third year and was initiated by the Roma and Sinti Center, is organized by the Prague 6 district in cooperation with the Museum of Roma Culture and the Prague Forum for Roma History at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Documentary Festival

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Czechia: Documentary Festival

The One World International Documentary Film Festival will begin on Wednesday, March 12. Its program also includes the film Fakir, which looks into the family of a twenty-something Roma named Dalibor. He spent two years in prison for perjury, then he returns home and immediately has to face new problems. His younger brother Kevin grows up to be a domestic abuser and an alcoholic. Dalibor wants the boy to be entrusted to his mother. But the decision depends on the court.

He tries to succeed in a circus to give his brother and himself a better future.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Road Show

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Czechia: Road Show

The Roma Road Show series of events, with which Government Commissioner for Roma Minority Affairs Lucie Fuková is going to the regions, presents inspiring Roma projects focused on housing, community work, health, education or security. The aim is to support cooperation between Roma organizations, local governments and local leaders. The first meeting took place on March 5 in Šternberk, with further stops in Pardubice and Jihlava.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Prague: Memorial Service

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Prague: Memorial Service

The Prague Forum for Roma History at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University invites you to a memorial service to honour the memory of the Roma and Sinti victims of the Holocaust

On Monday, March 10, 2025 at 3 p.m., a memorial service will be held in the park near the Old Square in Prague Ruzyne to mark the 82nd anniversary of the mass transport of Roma and Sinti from Ruzyne to the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia, Roma, and Ukrainians

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Czechia, Roma, and Ukrainians

An editorial by Kamila Plachetkov, a Czech Romni who tries to understand why some Roma are spreading hatred against Ukrainians in Czechia. She says: “I have been watching with great concern how hatred in the Czech Republic, which for many years was directed primarily against Roma, is turning against Ukrainians. But what shocks me most is the fact that some Roma are also participating in this hatred.”

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: The story of a Gangster

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Czechia: The story of a Gangster

Antonín Běla came from a relatively well-off Roma family from the group of kalderáša. He became a prominent crime boss in the 1990s in Czechia. This is his story.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia, Roma, and Social Benefits

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Czechia, Roma, and Social Benefits

Approximately 40 Roma men and women met in a cinema in Hrádek nad Nisou on Friday, February 21, to discuss the current situation of Roma in the Czech Republic. The main topics were social benefits reform, a very controversial one, employment, and equal status of Roma in society. One of the organizers of the meeting, Miroslav Tancoš, announced on this occasion that he plans to establish a new Roma political party.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia, Crime, and Roma

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Czechia, Crime, and Roma

An article that doesn’t help anyone. A journalist investigating of a Romni who allegedly sold counterfeit sports tickets was threatened by Roma, apparently, one threatening to “pull out a machete and kill him”.

Typical tabloid fare…

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Extremism in Czechia

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Extremism in Czechia

The Czech Ministry of the Interior has published a summary report on extremism for the second half of 2024. According to the document, the anti-system movement is weakening, while the influence of online radicalization is growing, especially in right-wing extremist circles. At the same time, a significant part of extremist and populist groups continues to support the Russian regime and spread its propaganda.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Forced Sterilisations

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Czechia: Forced Sterilisations

Sixty-five-year-old Jarmila Adiová from Jirkov near Chomutov, who has applied for compensation for forced sterilisations tells about what happened to her. She said “First, social workers came to me and constantly checked how I was taking care of our five sons. They went to school and everything was fine. I was pregnant at the time and expecting a girl. The social workers threatened me that if I didn’t have an abortion, they would take my children away.”

The office in charge of granting compensation is working so slowly that the deadline for applciations will be missed by many if a new law proposal to extend it by two years is not voted soon.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Roma Musicians

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Roma Musicians

How to make a documentary film not about Roma musicians, but with Roma musicians? This is what ethnomusicologist Petr Nuska thought about. For many years, he knew musicians from central Slovakia and they wanted to create their own music videos. So he helped them create the video clips, the Roma musicians themselves took on the roles of directors, and Petr Nuska then made a film about the film. The feature-length documentary is called Hopa lide and was filmed with its author by Jana Šustová.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Integration or Emancipation

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Czechia: Integration or Emancipation

An interview with František Lacko, a Roma activist from Czechia. He says that Roma do not need to integrate, but to emancipate. Integration is just parasitism of non-profit organizations. Non-profit organizations only do what they can get in grants. They are interest groups and mainly family businesses. Integration costs millions a year.

He has a point, as NGOs do have a conflict of interest: If the problems they aim to tackle are solved, so is their “raison d’être”.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Forced Sterilisation

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Czech Forced Sterilisation

Two articles in the French press about the forced sterilisations of Romnja in the Czech Republic.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Welfare Reform

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Czechia: Welfare Reform

The Czech Welfare Reform committee adopted changes to the current laws on welfare, including a potential increase of support, expanding the scope of the welfare, and some weakening of sanctions for people who break the rules.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Romano Suno

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Czechia: Romano Suno

The Romano suno (Roma Dream) competition has been organized by the non-profit organization Nová škola since 1996. It is open to everyone who knows Romanes and wants to write their own text in that language, make a video, or compete live in Romanes. The purpose of the competition is to encourage people to take an interest in Romanes, to create in it, and to use Romanes publicly.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Na Plech

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Na Plech

Extremely incorrect comedy “Na plech” is a big hit  in Czech cinemas with more that 65’000 viewers in the first week, Slovak cinemas are afraid of it. It is an extremely incorrect comedy, with uncompromising style and humor that goes beyond the limit. For example, one of the scenes features a group of Roma cooking methamphetamine.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Roma-Czech Talent

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Roma-Czech Talent

The Roma-Czech Talent talent competition aims not only to discover and support talented participants, but also to connect different communities and bring Roma culture closer to the non-Roma audience.

“This event is not only to search for and support talents, but also to emphasize the importance of connecting people across communities. “We want to create a platform that will allow non-Roma people to get to know our culture and thus contribute to mutual understanding,” Dana Chromeková, a member of the Roma Spolek HK association, told the Romea.cz news server.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Roma Writer

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Roma Writer

An article about the Roma writer Michal Šamko. His parents and siblings came from Svidník, but he was born in Jičín, Czech Republic, where he did not have an easy childhood. “Gypsy filth,” they shouted at him in elementary school, where there were 23 children in their class, but he was the only Roma. The biggest punishment for his classmates was not the remarks, but being seated next to him. Michal Šamko was determined to achieve something in life and in the end he succeeded.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia and Education

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Czechia and Education

Czech Education Minister Mikuláš Bek has presented the new Framework Education Programs (RVPs) for nursery and primary schools which are supposed to strengthen the connection between knowledge and skills and focus on reducing inequality in the Czech education system. For the first time ever, institutions focused on supporting the Romani minority have significantly contributed to the design of the programs.

Let’s see what this brings. Schools are still segregated…

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