Category Archives: Hungary

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Hungary Roma Self Government

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A court ordered the arrest of János Agócs, the president of the Roma Self Government who is suspected of official bribery. According to the prosecution, he sold his position for HUF 30 million. The Roma leader was caught with a lot of cash, but denies any crime. The decision is not legally binding for the time being, but the coercive measure against János Agócs – for which the prosecutor’s office made a motion – can be implemented immediately, that is, the Roma leader, who has been in custody until now, will be arrested. The reason for the decision was the risk of recidivism and the fact that if the suspect is released, he may attempt to thwart the investigation.

Bad for everyone …

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Hungary: Roma Design

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Clothes and accessories designed by the two sisters, Erika and Helén, are now internationally known, having been added to the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts, presented at the Cannes Film Festival, for example. Their goal is to use the tools of their own Roma culture and the treasure of its traditional motifs to shape today’s clothing fashion.

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Monika Lakatos

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An interview with Monika Lakatos. The singer, who in 2020 received the Womex Lifetime Achievement Award as the first artist of Roma origin, was described by a contemporary who also works in classical music as follows: a fragile, modest, non-marketing performer.

Mónika Lakatos grew up in a family with seven children, she has one daughter, she became a grandmother at the age of 41. His parents were engaged in horse trading, and he fondly remembers the horse fairs from his childhood.

Some of the statements in the interview will certainly reinforce some of the prevalent stereotypes about Roma, with, for example arranged marriages.

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Hungary, Roma Arts, and Poverty

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Hungary’s only Roma arts festival, TeatRom, closed with a deficit of about HUF two million. However, the series of cultural events – aimed at the Roma communities living in the segregated communities in Cserehát, a region in Northeastern Hungary close to the Slovak border – lasted only three days instead of the planned eight.

It took place in the village of Csenyéte, a village at the end or a desolate road. Life in Csenyeté is a dead end in many ways. There is nothing there. No shop, no clinic, no school, no pub, no bank, no post office. Even the mayor comes here only to go home after his work is done. Five hundred and fifty people live here today, almost exclusively Roma. Sixty percent of them are children.

Whether a festival in such a place, and whether the “romantic” view of Roma it presents are a good idea remain to be seen. But the problem of these isolated god-forsaken Roma communities in the poorest region of Hungary remains.

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Hungary, Embassies, and Minorities

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The embassies of almost all EU countries in Budapest – with the exception of Cyprus, Croatia and Malta -, several European countries outside the EU, as well as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico signed a joint statement published on the Roma Holocaust Memorial Day.

The message obviously refers to the recent Orban speech and criticises it implicitly.

“On August 2, on the occasion of the Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, we remember with sadness the tragic genocide that caused the death of hundreds of thousands of European Roma. Unfortunately, the seeds of racist ideology still exist and thrive in 2022. However, these ideologies are not only incorrect, they are also dangerous: they must be eradicated so that a culture based on equality and respect for human dignity can take their place. Diversity is not just an attribute to be tolerated, but a cause to be celebrated, as it brings strength and benefit to all of us. We join the voices of all those who condemn xenophobia, discrimination and all forms of racism, and we stand together with the individuals and communities who have suffered the ideologies of hatred and division.”

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Hungary, Roma, and Education

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Hungary, Roma, and Education

The situation of Roma students in Hungarian schools is critical: segregation is not decreasing, and only half a percent of them go to university. The Romaversitas foundation helps them progress from the 9th grade all the way to graduation. But fewer and fewer people apply to them. They try to equip their students with an activist approach and “talk them out” so that an intellectual Roma stratum with a strong ability to assert their interests can be formed.

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Hungary and Lungo Drom

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Hungary and Lungo Drom

Roma politicians have initiated an investigation against the Lungo Drom association with the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County Prosecutor. According to them, the activities of Lungo Drom’s President Flórián Farkas seriously endanger the legal operation of the association and the achievement of the goals set in the articles of association. As of 2017, Lungo Drom did not submit financial statements, and the last 2016 report available on the court’s website did not arrive until the fall of 2021.

Czech Republic Hungary News Eastern Europe Poland Slovakia

Visegrad Roma Cooperation

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The Romani language is the first topic covered in a ten-part series of reports entitled Visegrad Romani Magazine. It is prepared jointly by three Roma television stations: Dikh TV from Hungary, TV Romana from Slovakia and ROMEA TV from the Czech Republic.

Hungary News Americas News Eastern Europe

Really?

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Really?

Zsolt Bayer, author of racist and anti-Semitic remarks, is among the speakers at the event organized in Budapest by an American conservative group. He qualified Jews of “stinking excrements” and Roma of “animals.

So much for these conservative Americans …

Czech Republic Hungary News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Czech Republic, Roma Refugees and Hungarians

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Czech Republic, Roma Refugees and Hungarians

There is more and more talk about refugees from Ukraine who have Hungarian passports in addition to Ukrainian citizenship. Politicians talk about these refugees mainly in connection with the Roma fleeing the Russian aggression in Ukraine. The South Moravian Governor Jan Grolich from KDU-ČSL was the first to mention “Hungarian Ukrainians” without any knowledge and context and to to accuse them to abuse social benefits in the Czech Republic. The mayor of the capital city of Prague, Zdeněk Hřib, also justifies the Hungarian citizenship not to register them.

As said, the Orban government granted many residents of Transcarpathian Ukraine the Hungarian cisitzenship.

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Roma in Hungary

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Roma in Hungary

A reportage in Nyiregyhaza, in Eastern Hungary, in a day care centre in a Roma settlement. What the reportage omits to say here, is that these schools and day-care centres are de-facto segregated, as no non-Roma ever goes there. De facto, this perpetuates the segregation.

Czech Republic Hungary News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Ukrainian Refugees in the Czech Republic

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Ukrainian Roma who also hold a Hungarian passport, of which there are quite a few as Orban gave the citizenship to anyone speaking Hungarian in the Ukraine, face difficulties in the Czech Republic: They are denied help and being told to go to Hungary.

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