The Bulgarian press focuses on bad stories on Roma. Here, on a police operation in three Roma settlements in Kazanlak. This followed the stabbing of a policeman in the Roma settlement “Kazmera” by a 20-year-old criminal from the neighbourhood.
An interview with Matic Vidic who is employed by the Slovenian Army where he takes care of spiritual care in the Novo mesto and Cerklje ob Krka barracks. He is a permanent deacon in the diocese of Novo mesto, and he teaches religious education to children. He also does pastoral work with Roma and wants to help Roma to improve their lives and to improve the bad relations between the local population and Roma.
The Slovene Ombudsman Peter Svetina visited the municipalities of Škocjan, Sevnica and Radeče, where he met with mayors. In Škocjan, he was informed about the problems they have with individual Roma. At the same time, Svetina emphasized that positive discrimination against the Roma minority cannot discriminate against the rights of the majority population. After the meeting he clarified the statemen, saying Roma population have legislation which protects them, “but positive discrimination cannot discriminate against the rights of the majority population”, but the right balance must be found. “Also, protective legislation does not give the Roma population a free hand for criminal acts”.
An interview with Anna Maliszewska, the director and author of the series “Infamia”. She explains how difficult it was to give an objective portrait of Roma and how she did not manage to get any of them to come to the castings. She also spoke of Dr. Joanna Talewicz, who has been working for the Roma community for years and how she helped her in shaping the series.
An article on the press reaction to the fact that around 80% of the Roma in Eastern Slovakia voted for the Oľano party. It wouldn’t be an issue but for the implicit attempt in those articles to portray the Roma as stupid, who let Igor Matovič, the Ol’ano leader, fool them. Worse, as the author says, is that the media is also assuming that the Roma vote was bought.
The city of Subotica financed free textbooks for vulnerable children from the Roma population again this year. This is a measure aimed at preventing school dropouts and has been in place for a number of years. The ceremony of handing over textbooks was held today at the “Matko Vuković” Elementary School.
Romanes, language of Roma was introduced in elementary schools in Tuzla Canton, which thus became the first canton in Bosnia and Herzegovina to systematically contribute to the creation of an educational environment without discrimination and the preservation of the rights of national minorities. Years of lobbying and advocacy have finally borne fruit, say the Roma Association “Euro Rom” Tuzla.
The NGO “Koračite sa nama – Phiren Amenca” opened the exhibition “Racial diagnosis: “Gypsy” – the Nazi genocide of the Roma and Sinti and the long struggle for recognition” paid a special tribute to the victims of the Roma and Sinti victims of the Holocaust during the Second World War.
The big surprise of the last elections in Slovakia was the re-emergence of the OĽaNO party, which took almost all localities in Eastern Slovakia with a large Roma minority.
Electoral fraud was immediately suspected. But no concrete cases were found so far. The explanation of this success was presented by Igor Matovič, the party head, together with Peter Pollák, a Roma representative of this party. They said that it was the fear of the populist (and anti-Roma) Fico who drove Roma to vote en masse for OĽaNO.
There will be 6 Roma in the new Slovak Parliament. 6 out of 150, so not quite yet at the population level. 4 of them are from the OĽaNO party.
The initiative and law proposal presented by Slovenian Mayors aimed solely at Roma has been defeated in the Slovenian parliament.
The Labour Committee of the National Assembly rejected most of the mayor’s for regulating the situation of children from difficult social environments, with which the mayors of 11 Slovenian municipalities, among other things, wanted to start “solving” the “Roma problem”.
The municipality of Telgárt, where a fire destroyed the Roma settlement, has neither the money nor the means to deal with the situation. The Roma are still housed in tents.. The district office does not have the capacity to resolve the situation, and only the county has the competence.
Th temperatures are dropping rapidly, and soon someone will freeze.
The Title says it all: “They live on garbage in the largest ghetto in Europe. “A school bag and money for school were impossible wishes’” It is an article on Pata Rat, a garbage dump on the outskirts of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, which has become a home for the excluded. The country’s fifth largest city, wealthy and with numerous cultural centres, hides people who are not treated as citizens.
Good to say, but also presents Roma as exactly that: The ones who are excluded. It also furthers stereotypes.
It seems that Roma voted overwhelmingly (up to 80%) for the conservative and anti-establishment party OĽaNO party led by Igor Matovič. There are a few dissonant voices and the police is investigating suspicions of electoral corruption.
In Croatia, a pilot project entitled the Cultural-Educational Hostel, would target young people, upper elementary school students and high school students. They would stay in the hostel for ten days of their holidays, whether winter or summer, and would get to know the cultural heritage of the autochthonous Lovara Roma.
A statement by the Ombudsman Peter Svetina can raise a few eyebrows. He visited the municipalities of Škocjan, Sevnica and Radeče, where he met with the mayors and opened the Ombudsman’s Corner. In Škocjan, he was informed about the problems they have with individual Roma. He Svetina emphasized that positive discrimination against the Roma minority cannot discriminate against the rights of the majority population.
Among Roma, the OĽaNO coalition dominated with more than 70% of the vote in some villages. At least they did vote for the populist Fico and his SMER party.
The story of voting in a village with a majority of Roma. They voted on local elections, but not so much on the national ones.
The number of articles on Roma criminality and problems I exploding in Slovenia.
After more than 31,000 voters’ signatures were collected for amendments to four laws prepared and submitted to the National Assembly, which were prepared by the mayors of 11 municipalities from Southeastern Slovenia and Posavija, the legislative process began. These proposals, although they do not mention Roma, are clearly aimed against them.
The proposed laws received sufficien support in the State Council of the Republic of Slovenia this week. In the coming days, the members of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia will begin to decide on changes related to the Roma issue.
Another article about the attack of two brothers by Roma in Slovenia. The two Lopatec brothers in Dobrava near Škocjan were cleaning the a ditch with an excavator and a tractor when they were attacked by Roma. They threatened them with weapons, and then attacked the two policemen who intervened in the intervention, in the end three were slightly injured.
What the background is, is totally unclear, but the numbers of articles focusing on Roma “crime” is scary.
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