An article about the life of Romnja in Poland and their constant fight against stereotypes. This is presented through interviews with two Polish Romnja, one who stile lives in a traditional way (whatever that may effectively mean) and one which doesn’t.
But the stereotypes are the same: Dirty thieves.
The interview of the Czech presidential candidates on Roma issues by a Roma activist.
79% of the Roma in a small closed village voted for Babiš in the first round of the presidential elections in the Czech Republic. Marco Cavali from Prague, the chairman of the Roma Luma (Roma World) party, which he founded in 2021, called on the Roma to vote for Andrej Babiš. “And the Roma also voted for Babiš in the first round. Only this candidate is a sure guarantee of a safe life in the Czech Republic for the Roma,” Cavali tells CNN Prima NEWS.
This is bad. Babiš is a populist, supported by the far-right Okamura’s party. This will not turn out good for the Roma.
Vasilica, sometimes also called Bango Vasil, is celebrated all over the Balkans by Roma, be they Christians or Moslems.
Vasilica has been celebrated for a long time, as it is the “Old New-Year” of the Christian Orthodox calendar.
Nebojša Demirović Zeka from Vranje, Serbia, says that his great-grandfather told me that once upon a time, the Čergari Roma crossed some water. Their boats began to sink, and the geese saved them. Since that day, Vasilica is celebrated, while the goose is sacrificed.
The holiday is celebrated for health and happiness. It starts between January 13 and 14, and is celebrated for the next three days.
A discussion with Daniel Bunda, a gay Rom. He says it clearly, prejudice against LGBT+ is also present in the Roma community. It is so doubly difficult for him.
The mayoral election in Kecerovce, in Eastern Slovakia, saw the re-election for the fourth time of the outgoing mayor Miroslav Galas-Zaufal of the SMER, the leftist populist party of the former prime-minister Fico. Only problem, the village is 90% Roma and they say they didn’t vote for him… The police is investigating.
An interview with the deputy and chairman of the Committee for Human Rights and National Minorities, Peter Pollák Jr. about the recent murder in Michalovce.
Some excerpts: I think that the local government failed when it did not use funds from European funds. Some mayors simply do not want money for Roma integration, because it is not a popular topic. I think that is also the case in Michaloviec.
One of the associated phenomena of poverty is also increased crime. If we manage to reduce poverty in these ghettos and settlements, I believe that the crime rate there would also decrease.
A rochade among refugees in Germany. A group of Ukrainian refugees was moved away from their current home to make space for Hungarian speaking Roma refugees from Transcarpathian Ukraine who were in a temporary camp. The original refugees will be put in better homes, apparently, rather than in that particular large home they were in.
A bit of a mess, and the Germans admit their communication was not optimal.
František Tanko from the Slovak Roma Union stated that the actions of Marian Kotleba’s party directed against the Roma are unacceptable. “We are sorry for the incident in Michalovce, but we cannot throw all Roma into one bag. We are people who also obey the law,” Tanko said referring to the murder in that city.
Member of the National Council Marek Kotleba responded to Tank’s words by saying that their actions do not at all mean attacks directed at the Roma minority. “We did not go to the square in Michalovce to stir up any passions. We came to point out that such crime should be prevented,” explained Kotleba. He added further that the “People’s Party Our Slovakia will always stand on the side of decent people, whether they are white or black.”
That later statement is not really visible in the fact and actions of this party.
The Czech comedian Štěpán Kozub, in his performance at the O2 arena on 29/12/2022 made a really bad joke disparaging Roma and Jews as well as the memory of the Holocaust. Roma and Jewish organisations are protesting.
Kozub told that sometime after the Second World War, a bus full of Roma people went to see the ghetto so that it would never happen again. The guide goes to announce that “a bus full of gypsies” has arrived, and the porter replies: “But we don’t do that here anymore”.
Bad, especially since everybody in the sold out arena laughed.
The gathering of the Marian Kotleba supporters in Michalovce will have an follow up: Roma in Slovakia are planning a series of protests against the former member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, Marian Kotleba.
The marches will be held in larger cities and towns, they want to invite representatives of the European Commission to in addition to journalists. They will report them to the relevant authorities during this week. František Tanko, the chairman of the civic association Union of Roma in Slovakia, informed about this today at a briefing in front of the Presidential Palace.
Hundreds of Roma gathered on the square in Michalovce on Sunday afternoon to honor the memory of 46-year-old nurse Erika, who was murdered at the beginning of the year. The leader of the LSNS party, Marián Kotleba, accused the entire Roma community of the murder and called an anti-Roma rally in Michalovci. Roma booed him on Sunday.
The Slovak town of Michalovce saw manifestations on Sunday following the brutal murder of a woman by a young Rom. A commemoration for the victim was planned for the Sunday, and the extreme right politician Marian Kotleba had called his supporters to manifest there, prompting several hundred Roma to come and manifest their sympathy to the family of the victim.
The gathering was peaceful until Marian Kotleba appeared on the podium. At that time, the Roma made it clear that they did not agree with his presence. Subsequently, they gradually began to leave the square. There have been no clashes.
A week after the shockingly cruel and senseless murder of 46-year-old Erika, a large public gathering of people will take place in Michalovce. Everything indicates that there will be a clash between the extreme right Marián Kotleba’s followers and the Roma community. This can create an extremely conflicting situation in the city. The police are therefore on standby.
From 2016 to 2019, former Zares MP Franci Kek received 20,950 euros from the municipality of Novo mesto to participate as a social worker in the coordination of work between local community authorities and state authorities in the field of Roma integration in their municipality. The municipality explained this as follows: “His work, with his understanding of the Roma issue and the many contacts he has acquired through his previous work, covered an area for the municipality of Novo mesto that was not covered by the colleagues of the municipal administration.”
Some of the conclusions on dealing with the Roma “issue” are interesting: It is particularly pressing in Novi Mesto, as the city is surrounded by Roma settlements, which are the source of crime, violence, unemployment, lack of education… His report on the work done in October 2018 is a cause for concern, in which, among other things, it is written that he was at a meeting with the then to the State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, Dominika Švarc Pipan (now the Minister of Justice).
“The secretary believes that it is not up to the Ministry of Justice to implement the measure of abolishing fines at the same time as introducing the possibility of reducing the penalty from the work of social transfers. I think that this move would arouse great resistance in the public, so it would be necessary to hold quite a lot of talks with the non-governmental sphere before that.” for various offenses (Roma in Dolenjska are among the record holders) fines are taken from social assistance’s cash.
The case of a waitress who refused to serve Roma in a bar in Černelavc. Apparently, the waitress made no secret of her disregard towards Roma. Her and the bar’s lawyer argued that she thought one of the three Roma she refused to serve had been involved in a brawl the day before in the bar, which proved to be untrue.
The bar and waitress lost the case.
Volodymyr and Radislav Mykhaylov are Roma from the Chernihiv Oblast to the northeast of Kyiv. Volodymyr sings at charity concerts while Radislav fights in the Ukrainian forces. Radislav came back from abroad to enroll in the army.
The Slovak Census allowed for the first time to state a “second nationality”. First among them were Roma, of which 88,985 declared themselves. Note that there are probably around 400’000 of them in Slovakia. In total, more than 306,000 people indicated a second nationality in the census.
More than 55,000 residents saw Slovak as their second nationality, which is more than 18 percent of all residents who stated a second nationality. Less than 40,000 residents declared Ruthenian nationality as their second nationality, and more than 34,000 stated that their second nationality is Hungarian. 16,715 inhabitants stated Czech nationality as their second nationality. According to the results of the census, German nationality is the second nationality for 5,255 inhabitants of Slovakia. 4,871 people declared Russian nationality as their second nationality, i.e. 1.59 percent of the population who stated a second nationality. Polish nationality is the second nationality for 1,511 male and female residents, slightly more of them reported Ukrainian as the second nationality, namely 1,586.
On New-Years’ Eve, in Michaloviec near Zemplin, Slovakia, a 48-year-old woman was brutally murdered. The perpetrator, who was caught recently, turns out to be an 18-year-old Rom. This has provided material to the extreme right in Slovakia, with Marian Kotleba, the leader of one of the most extreme parties there claiming this is clearly a “Gypsy” issue and that politics should intervene, as Roma cannot be integrated. The former representative of the government for the Roma, Ábel Ravasz, pointed out that the murder is the failure of an individual and society should not condemn the Roma community. In an interview, he says that the extreme right will be using this as a tool for getting more votes.
Two people were sentenced recently in Bosnia Hercegovina for human trafficking. They had forced people to beg and steal in Paris by threatening them and their families back home. Apparently, they managed to earn around 1.5 mio EUR between 2012 and 2015.
The threats were recorded, which provided the evidence and they were sentenced to 12 years each.
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