A recent study by the Human Rights Institute shows that on social media in Slovakia, there are many hateful and racist comments about Roma. People try to hide behind pseudonyms and post many disparaging comments on Roma.
Bad.
The Whirlpool factory employs 500 Roma in Spiš, Slovakia out of a total of 1’500 employees. It is the key for Slovakia, advises the American Chamber of Commerce. Instead of looking for foreign workforce, Whirlpool looked at the Roma community.
Good!
Slovak Prime Minister Fico’s Government has announced they will provide funds for camera systems. The goal is to increase safety. And how do they determine which localities will get those cameras? Solely on the number of Roma living in settlements there.
This is both populist and racist and stokes discrimination.
In the Slovak Parliament, Thursdays has a question hour. Normally, Fico’s party (SMER) dopminates the questions but there are exceptions. One such case happened last week. They randomly drew a question from the member of the Slovakia movement (former OĽaNO) Petar Pollák. He wanted to confront Prime Minister Robert Fico with his statement at the economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he made claims that it is difficult to force Roma to work. In addition, Fico used the term Gypsy in English to refer to Roma, which is considered racistic.
Pollák did not expect what followed. Instead of answering, he heard accusations from the prime minister that the Slovakian movement had corrupted the inhabitants of Roma communities before the parliamentary elections. Fico is said to do everything to let the public know how it was. The Slovakia Movement rejects any corruption and is considering filing a criminal complaint against the prime minister.
Fico’s party, Smer-SD commemorated the Holocaust as well as the Genocide and stated: “On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops liberated the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz – Auschwitz. It is time for reflection, to remember the memory of millions of innocent lives that were victims of the Nazi regime,” they said, adding that they will never forget the victims of the Holocaust.
Well, in view of Fico’s comments on Roma, there is a touch of doubt about this.
The Roma magazine is dedicated to the Memory of Ľudovít Didi. Teacher, dissident, participant in the anti-communist resistance and the first Romany writer of novels in Slovak literature. As well as memories of the victims of the Roma Holocaust.
Petr Pollák asked the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico about his statements at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where, according to him, he spoke about “gypsies in Slovakia”. According to Pollák, he about how difficult it is to get them to work despite the fact that nowadays in every community they tell him that they need work. According to Fico, the Roma cannot only have rights in Slovakia, they must also have obligations, and they could create jobs for people who cannot be employed in the long term, for example “cleaning streams”.
He also claimed in the parliament that someone from OĽANO “bribed, corrupted and made promises Roma” before the last elections.
Although he is only 16 years old, Samuel Bandy has already managed to perform in front of 3,500 spectators and win several music awards. “I started playing the violin when I was about three years old,” he recalls.
In addition to studying at the Košice Conservatory, today he is the leader of the family band Ďusi band – he leads both his father and his older siblings. They play Romani folklore, but also Jewish, Ruthenian, Hungarian and classical music. “Roma musicians have played at parties since ancient times and had to be versatile – they had to be able to play everything. And it’s the same today,” says Bandy.
The Slovak prime minister Fico against accused the OĽaNO opposition party of Matovič to have bought the votes of Roma in the settlements. The combination of the physical presence of the candidates of the OĽaNO Pačivale Roma platform (honest/responsible Roma) directly in Roma communities, extremely effective electoral mobilization, and thoughtful and believable communication on social networks caused the formation of a disciplined mass of Roma voters, who in the tens of thousands voted for one political party – the then OĽaNO movement, now Slovakia.
The new Roma MPs have now a difficult task ahead of them.
The new Slovak government commissioner for Roma communities, Alexander Daško defends the current prime minister Fico and admires Russian culture. He also wants to change the mindset of Roma in his country and his main goal is to eliminate the two shifts in schools and that 120 mio euros have been earmarked for this. In his recent speech, he also hinted that he doesn’t seem to mind if schools are nearly 100% Roma.
Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) said at the Davos forum that a significant part of the long-term unemployed are part of the Roma minority, and also said that it is difficult to convince them to join the labor market.
Roma in Slovakia protested against these statements.
The European Union is putting pressure on member states to improve the integration of Roma into society. For several decades, Slovakia has been struggling with its inability to significantly improve the lives of the Roma, who represent about nine percent of its population.
President Zuzana Čaputová awarded a state award to Eva Gašparová, who is dedicated to teaching Romanes. The ceremony took place on January 14th in the building of the Slovak Philharmonic in Bratislava.
An ecoduct in Svrčinovec did not manage to be built by the end of 2023. This means that Slovakia lost millions from European funds – apparently threatening the entire funding of a highway. The problem was the Roma settlement which existed on the site of the planned work. The state did not find any suitable alternative housing for the Roma, and communes nearby squabbled as to whom would have to take these Roma.
Bad, but foreseeable …
Michal Šľachta has been working in Jarovnice since the summer. He worked for ten years at the Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Government for Roma communities in Bratislava. In the summer, he accepted an offer to work in Jarovnice. Almost 7,500 inhabitants live in the village, around 70 to 80 percent are from the Roma community.
He wants the village to apply for becoming a town, and wants to finally name streets and number houses. The current ghetto doesn’t have any street names.
When a half-Romani and successful singer releases a traditional song in Romanes, and mangles a few words, this unleashes a flood of criticism from the Roma community. There are valid points in the critique, but on the other hand, it is good that well known artists endorse their origins.
The young pianist Orsolya Lázoková, a Romni from Tornale, Slovakia, where she works as a television presenter at Madrom TV. She is a graduate of the Private Music and Drama Conservatory in R. Sobota and is currently continuing her piano studies in Banská Štiavnica. She enjoys her work as a presenter and editor and gathers new experiences.
Renáta Karchňáková comes from Vranov nad Topľou, Slovakia, and has never denied she is a Romni. She has a university degree, works as a nurse, and says that people respect educated and decent Roma.
She may be right, but frankly, this would be a real exception…
Ildikó Kotlárová comes from the Olaš (VlaX) Roma community and has been breaking stereotypes since she was a child. As a teacher and director of the Lajos Mocsáry Elementary School in Fiľakovo, which is attended primarily by students from the Roma community, she fights against stereotypes.
She says that those who live in generational poverty cannot lead their sons and daughters to education. Even if they wanted to learn, they don’t have the finances to do so.
Another reportage about Christmas among Roma in Slovakia. The editors of eReport went to see what Christmas looks like in the Roma family of Jaroslav Bihary from Nitra.
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