Category Archives: Slovakia

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Displaced People

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Roma in Telgárt have been living in military tents in makeshift conditions for more than two months following a fire in the Roma settlement there. When it rains, water flows inside them.

After the tragic night fire on July 20, more than a hundred people, including approximately sixty children, were left without a roof over their heads. One man died. After nine weeks, Roma families are still huddled in six military tents, which were provided as emergency accommodation by the Department of the Interior.

The situation has still not been resolved.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Politics, and Roma Education

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Every day there are more schools in the east of Slovakia with up to 50 percent of Roma pupils.  Non-Roma Slovak parents take their children out of school and look for other options for them. They are said to be afraid of infectious diseases, bullying and fights. Why do all solutions fail? An interview with education expert Martin Šmilňák (KDH).

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Relocation

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Roma from the settlement near the ecoduct of the D3 highway in Kysuck, near the border crossing in Svrčinovec, were to be moved by the end of March. It only succeeded six months after the deadline. Petitions, filed criminal reports and dissatisfaction of people in places where an external company provided them with accommodation did not help either.

Part of the Roma were relocated to a house in Lupušné Pažiaty in the district of Kysucké Nové Mesto, and another family found a new home in a property in Rakova on Zákopecká cesta. Even the house in Čadc – Podzávoz, where the settlers were moved by a truck of the National Highway Company in the early evening of Wednesday, September 13, is no longer abandoned. The rest of the inhabitants of the settlement were moved to the customs building in Makovo, where they found temporary accommodation.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Racist Attacks

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MP Jozef Pročko (OĽaNO) has a sprained cervical spine and a bruised head after Monday’s incident in Lučenec where he was attacked. At the press conference, he appeared with a fixation collar and announced that he had filed a criminal complaint in connection with the physical attacks on his person.

Pročko, but also OĽaNO candidates Peter Pollák and Viliam Tankó talked about the escalating attacks at their meetings. “We are the target of verbal and physical attacks. Their reason is our Roma origin,” added Pollák.

It was a group of Roma candidates who led the election campaign on Monday in Lučenec, where Prochko also came to support them. “Unknown people started disrupting our event. They shouted at us that we are gypsies, parasites,” Pollák told journalists, adding that after the verbal attacks, there were also physical attacks on Proček.

  • Poslanec Jozef Pročko (OĽaNO) má po pondelkovom incidente v Lučenci podvrtnutú krčnú chrbticu a pomliaždenú hlavu. In: Dennik N. 19.09.2023. https://dennikn.sk/minuta/3577168/
News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovak Uprising and Roma

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Slovakia commemorated one of the most important events in its modern history – the beginning of the partisan rebellion against the Nazi regime. At least 130,000 Slovaks and, according to historical sources, another 8,400 foreign fighters of thirty different nationalities fought in the Slovak mountains from August 29, 1944 until the end of the war.

In addition to Czechs, Spaniards, Italians and/or Ruthenians, the Roma also joined the resistance, explains ethnographer and historian Zuzana Kumanová.

“In 1940, a military law was passed, on the basis of which Roma boys did not become soldiers and performed substitute military service only in the 6th unarmed work battalion. That is where labelling, marking people unsuitable for the defence of the homeland, appeared for the first time. And other regulations, which were related to displacement outside the villages, in turn created space for the support of partisans,” the ethnographer and historian points out.

In January 1945, for example, the German Wehrmacht herded 60 Roma, including women and children, into huts in Čierno Balog and set fire to the houses. All died on the spot. However, historian and ethnographer Kumanová reminds us that Roma victims of World War II are not often talked about. The Ma bisteren project is therefore trying to raise awareness of the Roma Holocaust.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia Mayor

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A Roma mayor, often described as the “Roma king” Attila Géňa died under suspicious circumstances which are being investigated by the police. The tragic event affected the entire village near Prešov and its surroundings. He was run over by a wheel loader and suffered serious injuries, from which he succumbed on Wednesday, September 13.

The multiple Romani candidate for mayor from the Prešov region became mayor for the second time last year, but in 2018, after winning, he had to vacate his mayoral seat due to several crimes, including allegations of sexual abuse.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Roma Displaced People

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A Roma settlement in Telgárt, Slovakia almost totally burnt out in July. Now, the Slovak state announced they will end the aid for those families who lost their homes. Will they also take away the tents they currently live in?

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovak Politics and the Holocaust

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The OĽaNO chairman  and former prime minister Igor Matovič and the president of the Republic Milan Uhrík discussed in the program O 5 minut 12 on RTVS. He admitted that he “doesn’t go much” to his job as an MEP, but despite this, he earned more than 400,000 euros in the European Parliament.

At the beginning of the show, the moderator confronted Milan Uhrík with his past statements about the Holocaust. Uhrík did not directly condemn the Holocaust of Jews, Roma, LGBTI+ people, etc. “Certainly none of us wishes, neither now, nor in the past, nor in the future, that anyone, be it Igor Matovič, Milan Uhrík, your children, our children, anyone, would be taken to some concentration camp because he is small, fat big, white, black or whatever, we don’t even have to debate it.’

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Romanes

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A lecturer of Romanes on the state of the language in Slovakia, with many expressions and words slowly disappearing in spite of promises 15 years ago that this language would be taught as standard in schools.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Desegregation in Slovakia

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A new inclusive kindergarten was opened in Spišské Tomášovce in the district of Spišská Nová Ves on Thursday. 70 children are enrolled in it, of which 33 are from the Roma community. TASR was informed about this by Michaela Kotradyová from the Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Government for Roma Communities.

The representative of the Slovak government for Roma communities, Ján Hero, attended the opening, who pointed out that the first three years of life are the most decisive for how children will do in kindergarten and how they will be able to apply themselves later in life. “That’s when the fastest brain development takes place. Intervention during this period is therefore crucial. I am very happy that this work was successful and I am grateful that it adheres to the principles of destigmatisation, desegregation, deghettoization,” he declared.

  • V Spišských Tomášovciach otvorili novú inkluzívnu materskú školu. In: Tearz. 31.08.2023. https://www.teraz.sk/regiony/v-spisskych-tomasovciach-otvorili-no/737915-clanok.html
News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Large Project

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A call for projects entitled “Assistance to municipalities with the presence of marginalized Roma communities in arranging legal relations to land under settlements” has been started in Slovakia. More than 17 million euros have been allocated from European Union. “The aim of the call is to support the processes associated with the arrangement of ownership and use relationships to land in settlements in municipalities with the presence of marginalized Roma communities,” the Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Roma communities said.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Roma Spirit

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The nomination campaign of the jubilee 15th year of Roma Spirit is going to the finals. Last days to submit an application for the award! It is possible to nominate exceptional people and activities that contribute to the improvement of the situation of Roma in Slovakia by filling out the online application only until September 3!

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovak Singer

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Adriana Dráfiová alias Gitáná, became famous years ago in the Talentmánia talent competition. Since then, she has collaborated with famous names of the contemporary music scene, such as Jan Bendig, or the Slovak rapper Kali. In the past, she sang for, for example, Tina Turner, David Copperfield or top model Claudia Schiffer. She says that “I think I was able to break through in different genres and styles, that’s why my music appealed to the majority. Moreover, my Romanes is perceived as a completely different language. One of my songs is played at non-Roma events, on the radio, and I’m really proud that it caught on. People in it do not know the Romani language at all, and I am happy that with this form of Romani I can bring both cultures closer together.”

However, she admits that her best and favourite language is Hungarian.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Kamila Kamala Galjuš

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Kamila comes from Prešov from a well-known family of Roma ethno-emancipation activists and intellectuals (František Godla and Erika Godlová). Kamila is a linguist, translator and interpreter. She studies Slovak and English at the University of Prešov, cooperates with the national radio broadcasting RTVS, loves literature and writing.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Roma

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Zuzana Kumanová, PhD., is one of the most prominent experts in ethnology and history of the 20th century, especially in the topic of the Roma Holocaust. In addition to the academic sphere, she is also active in the field of Roma and women’s activism and in public and state administration. She says that as a society, we don’t know what we actually want to do with the Roma.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Diggers

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A strange story: Roma have allegedly dug up disused cables in the Prešov region. However, it is not a few metres, but rather 10 kilometres of trenches that have been dug up in the region.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Peter Pollak on the Holocaust

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Peter Pollák, Slovak MEP during the commemoration of the Genocide of the Roma in Banská Bystrica that “The pernicious ideology of Nazism and fascism caused millions of victims, including hundreds of thousands of Roma in Europe. Even the Roma bought today’s peace. However, we must keep in mind that if we don’t remember these atrocities, what our ancestors went through, we can also go through.”

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