Category Archives: News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Political Racism

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Political Racism

The police have closed the investigation into the case of racist Czech political extremist party SPD posters from last year’s election campaign, in which the chairman of this opposition movement, MP Tomio Okamura, and the SPD as a legal entity are accused. The Novinky server wrote on Thursday evening that criminal investigators are now waiting for the party’s new representative to familiarize themselves with the investigation file. The police are accusing Okamura and the SPD of inciting hatred, which carries a penalty of up to three years in prison.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Musician’s Book

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Czechia: Musician’s Book

What is it like to lose your sight as a child? What if you have a disobedient guide dog? What does a blind musician have to deal with? And what did police bullying of Roma look like in the nineties? The most famous Czech Roma accordionist Mário Bihári tells about this in his new book.

The book is called “Music in Colour”.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Romade Fashion

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Romade Fashion

The unique fashion brand, which supports the Roma cultural heritage, is a project of the fourth Slovak president Andrej Kiska. The brand was supported by many famous personalities right from the start, including Zuzana Čaputová. However, Romade fell far short of the creators’ expectations and ended 2024 with a loss.

Now its future is in question.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Trial

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Slovenia: Trial

The trial of Arsen and Leonard Novak began at the Kočevje District Court on Monday. They are accused of attacking Ribnica mayor Samo Pogorelc on June 8 with a minor, against whom separate proceedings are being conducted, closed to the public. Arsen Novak is also accused of attacking the mayor’s then-partner, Delo reports.

The affair made the headlines in Slovenia. What this omits to say, the attack occurred after the mayor threatened to cut Roma access to municipal services unless they “behaved”…

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Roma Attack

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Roma Attack

Two articles about the attack by a Roma against an official from the municipality of Ribnica, Slovenia. The official was slightly wounded. Tempers run high there, and the mayor has been cutting services to Roma settlements. This sounds like a self-made problem…

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Some Help

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Some Help

For a change, a positive article in the Slovene press about Roma. Long-time volunteer Boris Muhič described the meeting on his Facebook profile, which gives hope and sends the message: Let’s not throw all Roma into the same basket.”I would like to have a cup of tea with you”. “In the morning, I met Roma from the Pušča Roma settlement at a gas station. One of them approached me and said: ‘I would like a cup of tea with you’,” wrote Boris Muhič. At first, he thought he needed help, but the person he met explained that it was the other way around – they wanted to help him.

Roma pensioners who have worked in Austria for several years have expressed their desire to join voluntary and charitable campaigns. They said that they can do all kinds of work – from masonry and roofing to electrical and facade work, but they don’t do ceramics.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Police Violence

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Police Violence

The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and Amnesty International Slovakia demand an independent investigation into information about alleged police violence against residents of the Roma community in the village of Veľká Ida in Slovakia.

As stated in the statement of the organizations, the investigation of police violence against Roma in Slovakia has been ineffective in the past and has repeatedly failed to lead to justice. According to them, Roma communities in Slovakia continue to face police violence and raids.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Music, Musicians, and Roma

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Music, Musicians, and Roma

Slobodan Batjarević Cobe, known to some as a charismatic contestant on Serbia’s Zvezda Granda in 2007, has once again attracted attention with his statements about music, wealth and the pride of belonging to the Roma community.

“In the 21st century, Roma are the richest people in the world. Look at those Roma parties on YouTube, how much money they spend, who wears jewelry. It wasn’t talked about that much before. Now 99 percent of singers would love to sing at Roma parties, because, man – that’s where the cash is,” Cobe said honestly, making it clear that Roma parties have become the ultimate destination for anyone looking for a serious fee.

He probably refers to Serbia and more generally to former Yugoslavia.

Croatia News Eastern Europe

Croatia: Community Centre

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Croatia: Community Centre

According to Milorad Mihanović, president of the Sitnice Local Board  “the Roma settlement of Sitnice is one of the more well-organized in Međimurje. It has electricity, water, sewage, paved roads, and even broadband internet.”

About 700 locals will soon get a Roma multicultural centre – a place for education, social events, and also for children to stay. The Roma multicultural centre, a project that aims to enrich the social and cultural life of the community, has been put “under the roof”, and the value of the first phase of construction is 566,000 EUR and the funds were obtained from the budget of the Ministry of Regional Development and European Union funds, the Council for National Minorities of the Republic of Croatia and the Roma Alliance in the Republic of Croatia “KALI SARA”. The main investor and implementer of the project is the City of Mursko Središće.

Now, apparently, there is a drive to rename the street after Veljko Kajtazi, the president of the Kali Sara organisation.

Bulgaria Greece News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

Greece and Bulgaria: Traffic

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Greece and Bulgaria: Traffic

A lengthy article about a traffic of cheap Chinese ware landing in Greece and being sold in Bulgaria. It seems that most of the drivers who pass this across the border are Roma.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Moravia: Roma Culture

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Moravia: Roma Culture

The Moravian-Silesian Region has increased funds for supporting cultural activities in the region by almost 3 million crowns (121500 euros).

This will contribute to stage readings, a Roma festival or improvisational theatre. “As part of the subsidy program for professional and non-professional activities in the field of culture, the region supported 54 projects in March this year, among which the councillors distributed 11 million crowns. We managed to allocate additional funds for culture, so we will be able to support another 9 interesting events, to which we will contribute a total of 2.8 million crowns. These include, for example, the Improtřesk festival, Sorfest or the multi-genre Roma festival ARA FEST Ostrava,” said Peter Harvánek, the Moravian-Silesian Region Councillor for Culture and Monument Preservation.

Will this help Roma?

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Brawl in Slovakia

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Brawl in Slovakia

An article about a police intervention about several hundred people, many of which, according to the police were drunk. One police officer was apparently attacked, and one person was arrested.

What is really remarkable here is that the word “Roma” was not written, only that the incident was under investigation by the office of the plenipotentiary of the government for Roma communities.

Let’s see whether the intervention was warranted.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Obituaries in Serbia

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Obituaries in Serbia

Several articles on Dragoljub Asković in the Serbian press.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Racism in Poland

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Racism in Poland

Izabela Jaśkowiak, president of the Harangos Romani Educational Association of Poland on her experiences with Racism against Roma in Poland.

Being ostracised in school and university, racist comments, she had to endure all.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia and Sterilisations

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Czechia and Sterilisations

The Czech President Petr Pavel has signed a law extending the deadline for submitting compensation claims for forced sterilisations to January 2027.

Many Romnja who had been forced-sterilised had tried to get their claims registered, but the process was so slow that they would have seen their claims dismissed. Let’s hope this time it will work.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Attack

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Slovenia: Attack

Unfortunately, yet another story in the Slovenian press about Roma attacking non-Roma Slovenes, this time in Šentjernej. The victim is Andrej Brečko. A little over a week ago, he participated in a parliamentary commission where they discussed the Roma “issue”, and now the Roma are apparently taking revenge on him and intimidating him. He described on the social network Facebook what exactly happened on the night from Thursday to Friday. “It’s been exactly a week since the last Roma vandal attack on our property and car, and tonight Roma vandals broke a window on the greenhouse again”. HE was also physically aggressed on a second occasion.

Well, we can imagine what they discussed at this session, and why Roma might be offended.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria: Outrage

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Bulgaria: Outrage

The recent attack by a Roma youngster resulted in outrage. This editorial basically says that Roma are being treaded to kindly. The journalists Anton Stefanov says “There is no age to be a freak – how long will being a minor protect you?!”

“It is precisely because of the powerlessness of the state that there should be no mercy after this case! Because tomorrow there will be fists for other children too”

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Another one of those

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Another one of those

Another case of a Romano child who beat up a non-Roma Bulgarian, this time unconscious. According to the newspaper, “Everyone in Vidin knows him – a 13-year-old child, already “known” to the police, with a diagnosis of “mental retardation” and dozens of incidents behind him. He went through a Crisis Center, bullied his peers, threatened teachers, was a bully on TikTok. And yet he was left to move freely. While beating another child unconscious on the street.”

Summary: Roma are retarded violent people, and they are left free by justice. This is really bad.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Religion and School

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Religion and School

Bulgaria introduced a mandatory religion subject with two options “Orthodoxy” and “Islam”. According to the Centre for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance “Amalipe” (a Roma organisation), this may cause tension in ethnically mixed areas and deepen educational segregation. Additional tension may also arise in communities that follow forms of Christianity other than Orthodoxy and Islam other than Orthodoxy, for example, various Protestant denominations, Catholicism.

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