Or how a village in Hungary managed to prevent Roma from moving there, and how the mayor effectively controlled who could buy property there.
Shame.
Another article on the new proposed Slovenian Roma Community Act, that is criticised by the Roma community.
An article about the Erdelezi celebrations in Edirne, Turkey. With some rather unknown explanations of the festival (as the day of the meeting between the prophets Hizir and Ilias), and mentioning “purification” rituals.
Saint Georges day, also called Erdelezi, is one of the most iconic Roma celebrations in the Balkans.
Football in Leskovac, Serbia, among the Leskovac Roma, began to be played between the two world wars, and their first official match was recorded on July 26, 1926 in the then city weekly “Leskovački dnevnik”.
But the idea of forming a Roma football club began a year earlier, on St. George’s Day in that distant year 1925, in a smoky tavern on the edge of this popular Roma neighbourhood.
Now the club apparently closed …
The annual meeting of the International Catholic Commission for the Roma (CCIT) took place in eastern Slovakia in recent days, attracting approximately 100 participants from 14 European countries. Slovakia was represented by more than 20 participants from cities and municipalities.
In the Miran Jarca Library in Novo Mesto, Matic Vidic recently presented his book Guide to Meaning: Journeys of a Proven Logotherapist.
Matic chose to study theology and philosophy because he was already struggling with difficult life trials as a teenager. With the death of his mother and his father’s alcoholism, he began to wonder at an early age what the meaning of life was. Today, he is a permanent deacon of the Novo Mesto diocese, does pioneering work in Roma pastoral care and the integration of Roma into society, is an attentive husband to his wife Petra and a father to four-year-old Izak. Some of his stories in the book are powerful, others sad, but with each one he wanted to light the light for the reader that gave meaning to his life.
The Roma Community Council of the Republic of Slovenia does not support the draft amendment to the Roma Community Act, they concluded at Friday’s extraordinary session. They believe that the draft contains numerous shortcomings that must be eliminated in order for it to be in line with the constitution. They propose that it be withdrawn from further procedure due to its failure to observe fundamental legal principles.
In their position on the draft amendment, they wrote that the proposer, the Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Nationalities, did not take into account key normative and constitutional aspects when preparing the draft. “In addition, the draft contains numerous shortcomings that must be eliminated in order for the law to be in line with the constitution and to provide an appropriate legal basis for the operation of the Roma Community Council and the implementation of its tasks,” they are convinced.
Among other things, they believe that the state would interfere too much with the competences of local communities by determining the tasks of municipal coordinators introduced by the amendment, explained the president of the Roma Association of Slovenia, Jožek Horvat Muc.
Another story, this time in the canton of Neuchatel, where Roma tried to rent a camping site and after an initial accord, were told there was no longer a vacancy.
In brief, Switzerland doesn’t want Roma travellers…
The head of the police force in the Canton Valais has been defending his decision to stop the ca. 40 caravans of French Roma on a highway on April 15th.
In an interview published Saturday in “Le Nouvelliste”, Christian Varone, commander of the Valais cantonal police, spoke at length about the blocking of caravans on Tuesday, April 15, on the highway in Saint-Maurice, disrupting traffic between Vaud and Valais for more than seven hours in the region.
HeE said: “There’s zero tolerance for situations where public order is not respected.”
The problem is precisely determining the extent to which these Roma failed to respect public order while traveling to Gampel, where they had duly rented a private campsite. They had paid some 15,000 francs in advance for the rental. They were driving peacefully along the highway with their wives and children before encountering the Valais sheriff and his deputies.
The Police commander said that the Roma themselves to the owner of this land as Swiss Jenishe when they were actually Roma of French nationality. Upon learning of this, the lessor considered it a fraud and cancelled the agreement.” He communicated his decision to us orally, then in writing a few days later.
The news in France on Roma is dominated by the murder of a Moslem in the South of France. The suspect, a Frenchman of Bosnian origins surrendered to the Italian police after he fled the crime scene. What does it have to do with Roma, well, unfortunately, the suspect murderer is Christian Rom from Bosnia…
Other than that, an exhibition in the South of France on “Gitans”.
Une exposition raconte les trajectoires gitanes. In: Midi Libre. 03.05.2025. https://www.midilibre.fr/2025/05/03/une-exposition-raconte-les-trajectoires-gitanes-12672536.php
Thirteen people, including four children, were executed by the Nazis in November 1944 in Valaská Belá in the Prievidza district of Slovakia. A monument commemorating the victims of the Roma Holocaust stands at the site of the mass execution.
The Roma Community Council of the Republic of Slovenia does not support the proposal to amend the Roma Community Act, they concluded at Friday’s extraordinary session. They believe that the proposal contains numerous shortcomings that must be eliminated in order to be in line with the constitution.
She is known on social networks as Kamiben, but her real name is Lana. The twenty-eight-year-old Slovak with Romane roots, a native of eastern Slovakia, has loved art since childhood and wanted to create in a way that would give human meaning and help others. But most importantly, without prejudice.
The annual Amnesty International report on Czechia has just been published… It takes note of the incomplete compensation of the victims of forced sterilization among other things.
Apparently, the Slovak government is planning to plant trees next to Roma settlements and will use 60 mio Euros for this purpose.
The office of the Plenipotentiary for Roma communities explained that the alleged “planting of trees” is in fact an important multi-departmental project called Revitalization of the area near the settlements of marginalized Roma communities (MRK) through the employment of disadvantaged and endangered groups. The first main activity of this project is the Revitalization of neglected and polluted areas in urban and suburban areas of municipalities with the presence of Roma settlements. The aim is to remove illegally placed municipal waste in protected landscape areas near settlements, in connection with the employment of disadvantaged and endangered groups. The second main activity is the Support of forest cultivation and protection in areas near settlements in connection with the social integration of Roma through their employment in forestry.
A fight between two Roma at a bus stop escalated and a policeman intervened, hitting one of the two fighters with his baton. Roma then turned against the policeman who eded up in hospital.
Bad.
Do you want to help children from the Roma community? We would be happy to welcome you to our team as a volunteer tutoring at the Žížalka Roma Community Center in Přerov.
Famous musician Marián ČEKOVSKÝ: On Roma culture, otherness and prejudices in Slovakia. An Interview.
Ethnologist and Roma expert – Arne Mann (72) has worked at the Institute of Ethnology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences since 1983. He has been working near the settlements for approximately 40 years, thanks to which he is intimately familiar not only with Roma crafts and traditions, but also with the real causes of the ongoing problem.
In an interview with Aktuality.sk, he explained why the state’s treatment of non-profit organizations (which coincidentally were chosen by the current government of Robert Fico as an easy target to distract attention from the real difficulties of the people) is perhaps the worst mistake of all, and reminded that ethnic differences are not at all the most serious cause of the ongoing situation.
DE 
EN 
FR