Category Archives: News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgarian School Dropouts

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Bulgarian School Dropouts

Another article on the school dropouts in the Plovdiv region. Apparently, 430 children dropped out last year, prompting the authorities to increase inspections to a total of 22’000. It turns out that 290 of these children dropped out because they left the country. The 140 other who dropped out, according to the news did so because of a “lack of financial opportunities for inclusion in the education system and of course – early marriages.

They could have dropped the “of course” here…

Bulgaria News Americas News Eastern Europe

US Report on Bulgaria

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US Report on Bulgaria

Murder, torture, cruel treatment or punishment continue to be major human rights violations in Bulgaria. This is stated in the new annual report of the United States on the state of human rights in 2024.

However, the document does not mention corruption, as well as discrimination based on ethnicity and sexual orientation, which remain a serious problem in Bulgaria. The news comes more than a year after the last report on the topic, which pointed to corruption, police violence and discrimination as the main problems in Bulgaria.

Unfortunately, a predictable outcome…

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Michal Šamko

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Michal Šamko

The Romano writer Michal Šamko did not have an easy childhood. His parents and siblings came from Svidník in Northeastern Slovakia, but he was born in Jičín, Czech Republic. “Gypsy filth,” they shouted at him in elementary school, where he was the only Rom among 23 children in their class. The biggest punishment for his classmates was to be made to sit next to him. Michal Šamko was determined to achieve something in life, and in the end he succeeded.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Attack

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Slovenia: Attack

In the settlement Žabjak near Novo mesto, Roma attacked and stoned utility workers yesterday while performing a mandatory public service – collecting waste, announced the director of Komunala Novo mesto Bojan Kekec.

Not one of those articles asks the question as to why these attacks occur. Seems that this is what they consider as “normal” among Roma.

Bad.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenian Regional Civil Initiative

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Slovenian Regional Civil Initiative

Regional Civil Initiative demands decisive measures from the Minister of Labour, Luka Mesco regarding Roma. They want the Slovenian government to adopt a law proposed by some mayors of the Southeast of the country which would curtail social help depending on school attendance, and “goodwill from the part of Roma. They request action from the central government.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Desegregation

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Slovakia: Desegregation

Just two years ago, all poor children from the Pod Pustým hradom area in Zvolen sat in the classrooms of one elementary school. Students from the majority population gradually left it.

More than half (57 percent) of all socially disadvantaged children in Zvolen attended this school. The other five schools in the city had no such students at all or very few of them.

However, in 2022, the city of Zvolen began to address the segregation of Roma students by redefining school districts. Simply put, children from the poor community no longer belonged to one school district, and therefore to only one of the Zvolen schools.

They now began to assign them to school districts not by street, but by entrance numbers. Today, children from generational poverty no longer fall under one Zvolen school, but attend three – one private and two public.

This is good!

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Arson in Bulgaria

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Arson in Bulgaria

Millionaire heir Borislav Minev, son of the Roma businessman from Parvomay and owner of the Bor Chvor dairy company Dimitar Minev, is wanted by the Ministry of Interior as the mastermind behind the fiery attack at the Bamboo Premium Live club in Sozopol.

On the night of Sunday to Monday, over 350 customers of the night folk bar, mostly teenagers, were urgently evacuated by the security of the establishment due to thick clouds of poisonous smoke spreading, and investigators determined that it was a case of military smoke deliberately ignited in the women’s toilets due to a disco war that broke out in the seaside resort town, writes Weekend.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bad Press

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Bad Press

One of those articles… In the Plovdiv village of Rogosh, the tension between two neighbouring families has reached a critical point. Hristina and Ivan Genkovs contacted our media, claiming that they live in constant stress and fear because of the problems with their neighbours – Ginka and Sasho. According to them, they are of Roma origin, and the problems began several years ago, when Sasho moved into the neighbouring property, and since then there has been almost no peace in the neighbourhood.

In brief, if Roma move in, this is a mess. Bad.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Education and Poverty

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Education and Poverty

According to the article, due to poverty, migration or early marriages: Over 430 children from Plovdiv region have dropped out of school.
Well a bit further, the article becomes a bit more differentiated: The largest number of children – 290 – dropped out of school due to going abroad. Prof. Hristina Yancheva – regional governor of Plovdiv: “The reasons for dropping out of the education system can be summarized briefly – lack of financial opportunities for inclusion in the education system, migration and of course – early marriages.”

The last point may occur, but there can’t be that many of those …

Europe News Eastern Europe Poland

An Omission?

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An Omission?

During the August 2nd commemoration of the genocide of the Roma during the Holocaust in Auschwitz, Romani Rose, chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma gave a speech in German in which he not only spoke about the genocide of the Roma but also of human right violations, and he specifically mentioned children starving in Gaza.

The issue: the Gaza mention was not translated in English, Polish, or Czech according to the people we spoke to right after the ceremony in Auschwitz.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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Slovenia and Roma

The editorial office of Moja Dolenjske received a letter from the Roma Association Vstani, Roma Child, which is based in Murska Sobota. In it, they threatened the portal with criminal charges if, when reporting on criminal acts involving individual Roma, they do not stop stating that the criminal acts were committed by Roma.

The association is convinced that when writing, they should keep silent about the fact that the criminal acts were committed by Roma, as this would unjustifiably stigmatize the entire Roma community, but at the same time they believe that reporting should be based on the act and not on emphasizing that it was committed by Roma. They also state what proper reporting should be like, and suggest some titles such as: Police handle case of theft and violence, Police investigate morning attack and Three men suspected of attacking utility workers.

Well, they are right …

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

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Slovenia and Roma

Another one of those articles. It states: “Living with members of the Roma community in southeastern Slovenia, which includes Dolenjska, Bela Krajina and the Kočevsko-Ribniško area, is very difficult. Not because citizens are hostile or in any way hostile to the Roma, but because some of the latter are gaining momentum in committing criminal and other violent acts.”

And of course, the government is not doing anything.

Bad.

News Eastern Europe Romania

Elvis, Roma, and Romania

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Elvis, Roma, and Romania

Tudor Lakatos is fighting discrimination against Roma, one Elvis Presley song at a time. He says: “I never wanted to get on stage, I didn’t think about it,” Lakatos, 58, said after a recent gig at a restaurant in the capital, Bucharest. “I only wanted one thing — to make friends with Romanians, to stop being called a Gypsy,″ he added, using an often derided term for Roma.

Croatia News Eastern Europe

Croatia and World War Two

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Croatia and World War Two

On the occasion of the International Day of Remembrance of Roma Victims of Genocide in World War II – Samudaripen, at the Roma Memorial A commemoration was held at the Uštica centre, where the representative of the Roma national minority, Veljko Kajtazi, condemned every attempt at historical revisionism.

“When we increasingly see attempts at historical revisionism and hiding the truth, we are obliged to send a strong message from this place – a message that the victory over fascism was not in vain,” Kajtazi emphasized, adding that silence in the face of revisionism becomes complicity.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Mixed Family

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Mixed Family

The story of a Czech Romni married to a non-Roma man. She starts by saying that a strange woman shouted at me not to speak Romani to my son in a shop!

She says:

I am a Romani woman. For some, it is just a word, for me it is my identity, my history and my pride. My husband Petr is Czech, a “gadžo”, and together we are raising our two-year-old son Davídek. Our home is a place where two worlds, two cultures meet. We speak Czech together, but I have also spoken Romani to Davídek since birth. I want him to know the language of his grandparents, to understand the songs and stories that shaped our family. I want him to be proud of both halves of his body.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Festival “Romský Bašavel”

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Festival “Romský Bašavel”

The sixth annual cultural event Roma Bašavel will take place on Thursday, August 14, 2025, from 5 p.m. at the Novodvorská Cultural Centre in Prague 4. The festival will present both traditional and modern Roma music and dance, and visitors can also look forward to a rich accompanying program and specialties of Roma cuisine. The Romea.cz news server was informed about this by Anna Chválová, the officer for national minorities and integration of foreigners of the Prague 4 Municipal District.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Niš: Šaban Festival

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Niš: Šaban Festival

The 14th Roma Music Festival “Zauvek Šaban Bajramović”, dedicated to the Roma musician and composer Šaban Bajramović started on August 6th in the amphitheatre on the Niš quay in Serbia.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

A Bridge

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A Bridge

The bridge near the Health Center in Bujanovac, towards Novo Naselje, has received a new, refreshed look thanks to the joint action of the “You are Rom” Association, the Municipality of Bujanovac and the Mayor of the Municipality, Arber Pajaziti. “This bridge has a special symbolism – citizens of different nationalities pass through it every day: Albanians, Serbs and Roma. As a common space, the bridge symbolizes the connection and coexistence of all peoples who share the same city,” say the Roma Association.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Brass Festival

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Brass Festival

The world’s largest trumpet festival is dominated by Roma musicians from the Serbian south. This is their style, and most of the bad are professional, and an common sight in weddings, feasts, and burials.

The rest of the article is bad. “Irregular rhythms” refers to non ½ simple bats that are common in the Balkans, and the origins of Serbian Roma displayed there show the lack of knowledge of the journalist…

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Tomio Okamura

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Tomio Okamura

The Czech politician Tomio Okamura and his SPD party are facing charges of inciting hatred. The case is related to last year’s election posters in which the party attacked migrants and Roma.

Would be good if this goes to court before the upcoming elections…

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