Category Archives: Slovakia

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: New Artist

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Slovakia: New Artist

Vanesa Horáková is only 16 years old, but her talent is confirmed by her latest single “Nechcem Ťa”.

She said: “I wanted to transfer the Roma style to pop and show people that Roma music can also be made in a modern, attractive dress. I wanted to prove that a song can be created by connecting both languages, which also fit perfectly into the Latin music background. I have many fans in the Roma community and I believe that they will be pleased with the lyrics in our language.”

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: EU Funds

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Slovakia: EU Funds

Slovakia has received almost a billion euros from EU funds, which are intended to improve the living conditions of poor Roma. Whether the state is using this money effectively, and whether this aid is at all visible directly in the Roma settlements, will be the topic of today’s TA3 discussion show “Let’s look at it”.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Fire

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Fire

The quick reaction of a group of Roma prevented a tragedy in Topoľčany. A fire broke out in a family house on Tuesday, March 25, in the afternoon. Two women who lived in it without electricity, water and gas were trapped in thick smoke (no, it was not a Roma house).

At that time, Roma were working in the yard, helping the owner of the house with cleaning the land. When they noticed smoke pouring through the cracks in the windows, one of them did not hesitate to act. He ran into the building to save the women from danger.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Protest

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Slovakia: Protest

Teachers and students of Matej Bel University symbolically buried the code of ethics in protest against the speech of MEP Milan Mazurek at the university. “Dear mourners, on Thursday, March 20, the spirit of the code of ethics of Matej Bel University died.

Milan Mazurek, of the Republic Party (formerly “Our Slovakia”) is an extreme right politician who was condemned for racism against Roma in 2018, a decision upheld by the supreme court in 2019. Hew said in a speech: “The Gypsy anti-socials have never done anything for the nation and never will”.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Roma Ball

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Roma Ball

An article on the Roma ball held in Bratislava and the outfits of the Roma who attended. The article stresses the amount of jewellery and gold worn by the attendees.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Acquitted

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Slovakia: Acquitted

Canadian professor David Scheffel, who came to Slovakia to conduct research on child prostitution in Roma settlements near Prešov after the revolution, was prosecuted for sexual crimes for years. He was accused based on the statements of teenage girls from a poor Roma settlement where he conducted his research.

Last year, the girls recanted in an interview with the press and now, they have retracted their statements in court. The court subsequently acquitted David Scheffel.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Roma Settlements

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Slovakia and Roma Settlements

The Plenipotentiary of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Roma Communities Alexander Daško, who has been in place for 15 months, says that there have been enough concepts and analyses, and that one already knows everything about the living conditions in the communities, now we need to work. He also claims that nothing has been done in the last 30 years. He added that changes will take a long time.

Fact is, fires such as the one in Veľký Šaris will continue to happen, for as long as people have to resort to burning plastic in stoves to heat their homes.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Commemoration

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Commemoration

On Saturday evening, Romani students during the BARUVAS meeting in Brno symbolically joined the memorial service for the victims of the tragic fire in the Romani settlement in Veľký Šariš, Slovakia. Each of the twenty-five participants lit a candle and together honored the memory of four small children and their great-grandmother who died in the night fire.

 

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Veľký Šariš

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Veľký Šariš

In cooperation with the government’s plenipotentiary for Roma communities, Alexander Dašek the city administration is working on a housing solution for the people who lost their homes in the fire in the Roma settlement.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Lunik IX and Education

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Lunik IX and Education

Michaela Cingeľová, a unique teacher who decided to go to teach at the Ľudmila Podjavorinská Elementary School in Luník IX four years ago. This is one of the most notorious ghettos in Slovakia.

 In addition, she founded a project in her hometown that makes Roma children look forward to going to school on Saturdays.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Fire

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Slovakia: Fire

Many articles in the Slovak and in the Czech press about the fire in the Roma settlement of Veľkém Šariši which killed 4 children and a woman and destroyed several houses. Alexander Daško, the government’s plenipotentiary for Roma communities, went in the settlement in the Prešov region. He wants to go to Brussels and provide modular housing for the Roma in the settlements.

Up till now, he hasn’t done much to help and is heavily criticised.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Fire

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Slovakia: Fire

The fire in a Roma settlement in Veľký Šariš on March 19th claimed the lives of four young children and one adult woman and burnt 8 homes to the ground. It has severely affected not only the local Roma community, but also the general public. Roma activists, politicians and representatives of institutions are reacting to the tragedy. Roma leader Jozef Stojka called on Roma in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and throughout the European Union to light a candle in memory of the victims on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. According to him, the tragedy revealed a long-term crisis in the state’s approach to marginalized Roma communities.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Displaced

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Slovakia: Displaced

The mayor of the municipality of Dolné Vestenice in Slovakia, Viliam Šuhajda, declared an emergency situation for the territory of the municipality, specifically in the Kopanice part, with effect from March 19, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. The reason for this decision is slope deformation, which poses a serious risk to residents and infrastructure in the area.

The issue: Below that slope lies a Roma settlement. And the municipality said they had no alternative place to resettle them…

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Deaf Roma

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Slovakia: Deaf Roma

A conference entitled We Create a Community of Deaf Roma Together: Deaf Roma as an Invisible Minority was dedicated to discussing the challenges faced by the deaf Roma community, as well as finding concrete solutions supporting inclusion. It will took place on Tuesday in a café on Svätopluková Street in Prešov. As the director of the civic association Svet ticha Tomáš Dunko it also highlighted the results of mapping deaf Roma living in socially excluded localities.

According to Dunko, who is deaf and sign language Roma, this is a relatively new topic that is little known in Slovakia. But it affects a large number of people who experience linguistic and social isolation without sufficient support from the state and society.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Famous Photo

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Slovakia: Famous Photo

David Neff won the Czech Press Photo for his photo of the tragic floods in a Roma settlement in eastern Slovakia, but his main protagonist, Sister Atanázie Holubová, was not too thrilled with the photo. “I was a little angry with him. Why do you still have to take pictures of it?”

The flood occurred in Jarovnice on July 20th, 1998.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Racism Stories in Slovakia

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Racism Stories in Slovakia

An article with testimonies of racism towards Roma, but also Ukrainians, Moslems, etc.

“He shouted at us that we gypsies should not be here, that we stink, that we should sit in the back and not in the front, that they treat us like gypsies, that we are dirty gypsies.”

“I faced discrimination when they refused to serve me in a café and a bar because of my Romani origin. It was very humiliating and embarrassing for me.”

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Erika Rein

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Erika Rein

Young singer Erika Rein is a prominent figure in the Slovak music scene and could win the Debut of the Year and Album of the Year awards. She sings in Slovak, English and Romanes and makes catchy pop songs.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and the Tiso Regime

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Slovakia and the Tiso Regime

Hana Kubátová (45) is a historian, she is dedicated to Holocaust research, and works at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University in Prague. Her book “Where Foxes Say Good Night” about the relationship between Christian nationalism and the Holocaust in Slovakia is currently being published. She says: “When the Tiso regime wanted to create “new Slovaks”, it was easier to say who did not belong to them”. Roma and Jews were definitively part of the New Slovaks…

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Roma and Czechoslovak Socialism

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Roma and Czechoslovak Socialism

Efforts to resolve the issue of coexistence between the Roma community and the majority society started with the newly established independent Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. State policy was primarily bureaucratic and repressive in nature. After 1948 and the rise of the communist party, the position of the Roma in Czechoslovakia deteriorated significantly. This situation then escalated further during the era of so-called normalization. The socialist regime tried unsuccessfully to assimilate the Roma minority.

The article dwell on travellers, of which there were very few in the region, but does not speak much about the resettlement after the war.

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