Category Archives: Slovakia

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Roma, and an Opinion

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An Interview with Igor Andre, a Slovcak from Bratislava who worked in the office for the plenipotentiary of the Roma and moved 10 years ago in Eastern Slovakia and taught in a Roma school.

Well, his view of Roma is stereotypical. He states: “The debate about the Roma in our country is influenced by the woke ideology”; that the debate is “automatically based on the principle that the majority is the oppressor and the Roma are the victims.” He continues and says that Roma are gifted in crafts… In brief, he knows and sees only a part of the Roma community and thinks he knows it all.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Roma, and Unemployment

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Another Slovak article about the latest measures from  Minister of Labor Erik Tomáš to reduce unemployment and prevent abuse of the social system.

“We want to employ and get to work as many Roma as possible,” said the minister at the beginning of the press conference. How will it work in practice? If an unemployed person rejects a job offer, the material need benefit will be withdrawn or reduced for 12 months. According to the law, it still applies that it must be such an offer that is suitable for the person in question and corresponds to his abilities.

Well, how will it work with Roma? Since most companies do not want to employ them, how is this supposed to work? This is just another of those populists measures that bring nothing.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Populism

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Erik Tomáš, the current Slovak Minister of Labour introduced new laws aimed at cutting benefits to unemployed and reducing the social contributions. He basically wants those who hate Roma to applaud him.

The numbers have remained fairly stable, and it is not just Roma who receive social contrinbutions…

Belgium News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Belgium: Spot the Difference

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On Slovak TV, they are wondering why Slovak Roma in Belgium all work, whereas in Slovakia, this is not the case.

Well, it has to do with the prejudices of the employers …

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Work, or …

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“Everyone who can work should work.” The Minister of Labour Erik Tomáš (Voice) began Tuesday’s press conference with these words, which was aimed at reducing unemployment and specifically affects unemployed citizens abusing the system. Here, unanimously, read “Roma”.

“If an unemployed person rejects a job offer, the financial need benefit will be taken away or reduced,” he said, adding that this should work in the case of adequate offers that are appropriate to the abilities of the citizen in question. He added that it already works similarly in the case of works in the public interest.

Well, when you come from a Roma settlement, you will not get employed. So what else did they decide, very much like in Hungary, some local work for the communes (not paid to market prices). If it turns out like in Hungary, you get 19th century work with the very same results …

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Amaro Fest

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On July 13 and 14, the eighth annual international Roma festival called Amaro Fest 2024 – open air gipsy festival – will be held in the Nitra amphitheater in Central Slovakia. As the organizers from the civic association Roma Art Agency stated, the goal of the event is to promote and develop Roma culture. The role of the festival is also to support Roma identity and contribute to the social and cultural inclusion of Roma.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Covid-19 and Roma

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Some Roma communities in Slovakia were placed in absolute isolation during the Covid 19 pandemic, which nowadays thought to have been an overly restrictive measure which possibly violated the basic human rights of the inhabitants of the affected Roma communities.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Bratislava: Exhibition

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An exhibition of drawings by children on the theme of Roma personalities has opened in Bratislava in the baroque courtyard of the university. “Especially for Roma children, this topic was very inspiring, encouraging and instilling pride. For children from the majority society, such a topic is an opportunity to get to know successful Roma,” explained Agnes Horváthová, founder of the civil association Romano kher – Rómsky dom, which organizes the competition.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Poverty

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An article on the improvements in terms of work and poverty in the town of Rimavská Sobota, in South Central Slovakia. There, the unemployment has been the highest in Slovakia for a long time, but it has fallen sharply over the last 10 years. In addition, a large investment is planned for the district, the German company Winkelmann will build a plant there, which will create 450 jobs.

At the exit meeting on Wednesday, the government distributed approximately two million euros to various projects in the districts of Rimavská Sobota and Poltár.

What benefit will come to Roma still needs to be seen.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Roma

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For a change a positive article about Roma. A employee of a supermarket about her colleagues who are all Roma. According to her, 90% of the team are Roma: They are hardworking and family-oriented. They also take the whole family to team building.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Miss Romani Czechia-Slovakia

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On the weekend in Hodonín, the final of the Roma beauty queen pageant took place. Twelve finalists, who were chosen from more than sixty applicants, competed for the title. The winner was sixteen-year-old Martina Balažová from Liptovský Mikuláš.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Roma

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Almost a hundred years ago, the so-called Pobedim massacre, a pogrom against Roma, took place in Slovakia. In October 1928, a group of rioters from Pobedimi attacked a Roma settlement. The pogrom left behind destroyed houses, injured and six dead, including a six-year-old child. But no one saw and did nothing. This event is commemorated by a production of the Slovak National Theatre.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Car Workers

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Branislav Ondruš, State Secretary of the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic, revealed more about a planned project to support the work integration of marginalized Roma communities and women from eastern Slovakia to the SITA agency.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, a Pogrom, and Theatre

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In October 1928, a group of rioters from Pobedimi attacked a Roma settlement. The pogrom left behind destroyed houses, injured and six dead, including a six-year-old child. This event is commemorated by a production of the Slovak National Theatre.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and European Elections

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The European Parliament elections in Slovakia were won by the Progresivne Slovensko (PS) movement, which won six mandates, followed by the Smer-SD party, which will be represented by five MPs, the Republika party (founded by former party members Marian Kotleba), which won two mandates, the Christian Democratic Movement with one mandate and the Hlas – social democracy party (whose former chairman Peter Pellegrini will sit in the presidential palace), which also won one mandate. The Roma candidates failed.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Khamoro: Theatre

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The Slovak National Theatre presented a play about a tragic 1928 pogrom against Roma in Pobedimi which killed 6 Roma and left many without a house at the Khamoro Festival.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Movie

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Acclaimed Slovak director Martin Šulík made an uncompromising film about a young Roma boy born in a settlement in Eastern Slovakia.

The director said: “We wanted to make a film about our Roma because we realized that we don’t know anything about them. We know the Gypsy Kings, a one-hundred-member Roma orchestra from Budapest, but we have no idea of the conditions in which two hundred thousand Roma live in eastern Slovakia. Before we started writing the script, we travelled around Roma settlements and met interesting people who opened up to us and told us their stories. Our film was made up of their stories. We did not want to mythologize the Roma, look at them as folklore or romanticize them. We wanted to capture their life truthfully, because life in a Roma settlement is a reflection of our world. It’s just that everything is more emotional, more intense and more direct.”

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Igor Holub

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Slovakia mourns the death of musician Igor Holub. The sad news was published on the social network by the artist’s nephew Robert, the website regiony.zoznam.sk reported.

May he rest in peace.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Roma Spirit

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In Bratislava, on May, the Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová received the laureates and finalists of the 15th edition of the Roma Spirit award. She stated it on the social network. She pointed to hundreds of stories of hope, humanity and inspiration. According to her, these helped disprove the belief that the exclusion of Roma is an unsolvable problem.

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