Tag Archives: Politics

Europe

Roma Week in Brussels

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Politicians, experts, activists and organizations dealing with persistent anti-Gypsyism in Europe gathered in Brussels for the so-called Roma Week. It takes place just after the International Roma Day (April 8) and before the Day of Roma Resistance (May 16) at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the European Committee of the Regions and other EU institutions. The ERGO network organises the Roma Week.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovak Elections and Roma

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In one of the largest Roma housing estates in Slovakia, Lunik IX, Roma did not go and vote for the Slovak Presidential elections. People say they would have gone if there were Roma candidates.

Well, they missed an opportunity to express their views. That is a pity.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovak Presidential Elections

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Non-parliamentary parties Democrats, Democratic Party, Forum, Modrí – ES, ODS – Citizens’ Democrats of Slovakia, Roma Coalition Party have agreed on a common procedure in the second round of the presidential elections. On Tuesday, at a joint press conference, they officially expressed their support for the civil candidate for president, Ivan Korčok.

Slowenien

Slovenia and the Roma “Problematic”

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The President of the State Council of the Republic of Slovenia, Marko Lotrič, together with the State Secretary dr. sent Monika Kirbiš Rojs and state councilor Bojan Kekce on their third regional visit, this time to Dolenjska. One of the topic of discussion with local mayors was the Roma “problem”.

Uncategorized

Slovak Elections

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On Saturday, March 23, 2024, the first round of presidential elections took place in Slovakia. Voters chose from nine candidates. Voter turnout was at almost 52 percent. The winner of the first round was Ivan Korčok (independent candidate), with over 42 percent of the votes, Peter Pellegrini (Voice) with 37 percent was second.  The nationalist Štefan Harabin came third (11.7 percent), and almost 3 percent went to the chairman of the Hungarian Alliance, Krisztián Forró. He won first place in two districts in the south, in Dunajská Streda and Komárno. These are districts with a significant Hungarian minority, but part of the population is also made up of Hungarian-speaking Roma.

Igor Matovič, leader of the Slovakia movement (formerly OĽaNO), won only 2.18 percent of the vote. Part of his movement is also the Roma platform Pačivale Roma, which is represented by father and son Pollák. Matovič received higher support in the districts of Bardejov, Sabinov, Levoča and Kežmarok, i.e. districts with a higher proportion of Roma, where the Pollák come from. It can therefore be assumed that he was elected by the Roma in the settlements.

The second round of the presidential election will take place on April 6, with more than 4.36 million eligible voters eligible to participate.

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa Slowakei

A Czech View on Slovakia’s Elections

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Spiš, a once rich German region between Poprad and Prešov, is increasingly the fiefdom of the Roma. They push the Slovaks out of the town halls and rule themselves here. Former prime minister Igor Matovič’s Slovakia party has the most Roma MPs in the parliament. Roma want to continue this trend in the presidential elections.

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Czech President on Roma

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Czech President Petr Pavel commented about Roma in his speech Deník na Kladno.  On Wednesday, he visited the Vinařice prison, where the majority of Roma prisoners are. He thought about why that was.

He stated: “We have fifteen primary schools here, two of which are racially segregated, almost all the children are Roma. I think we will not move on until the majority realizes that the integration of Roma is an important long-term task of the Czech Republic. And until we get Roma for the task as well.”

News Osteuropa Slowenien

Slovenia and the Roma “Problem”

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Yet another article about the Roma problematic, and the initiative of several mayors to change legislation. Their proposal was thankfully declined by the parliament, as it was pretty much targeted against Roma. The members of the coalition stated that they would put up a proposal by the end of 2023.

The article here complains that not much has been done so far.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Fico and Roma

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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.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia, Fico, and Roma

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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.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia, Fico, and Roma

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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.

  • Premiér Robert Fico v parlamente tvrdí, že niekto z OĽaNO Rómov pred poslednými voľbami „uplácal, korumpoval a sľubovali im“. In: Dennik N. 25.01.2024. https://dennikn.sk/minuta/3794126/
News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia and Roma in Parliament

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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.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia, Fico, Roma, and Davos

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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.

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Scholtz on AfD

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The AfD (or at least several of its members and allied groups) is reported to have drafted a relocation plan for citizen of non-German origins. Olaf Scholtz, the German Chancellor has slammed this plan that reminds of the Nazis’ racial laws. The definition of non-German raises questions for Roma and Jews alike.

Slowakei

Slovakia, Elections, and Roma

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Another article about the 500 Euro promise made by O’lano and Roma. The articles in the Slovak press are pretty unanimous: Without this promise, the party would not have made it above the 5% threshold. It is now very convenient that a Roma organisation is suing this party for false promises.

Effectively, the narrative is that all Roma votes have been bought. While in some places this may hav been the case, it still needs to b proven…

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia, Elections, and Roma

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Members of the National Council (NR) of the Slovak Republic for the Slovakia movement Peter Pollák Jr., Lukáš Bužo and MEP Peter Pollák Sr. reject the accusations of the Union of Roma in Slovakia that they deceived the Roma before the elections in connection with a 500-euro allowance for participating in the elections.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia, Elections, and Roma

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The OĽaNO party promised in its Agreement with Slovakia that “we will pay a reward of 500 euros in cash to all honest people who come to vote on September 30, 2023”. This is how the representatives of the Pačivale Roma movement also presented it at pre-election meetings in the settlements, and people flocked to them.

According to the article, the prospect of a financial reward for participating in the elections was a very strong. So strong that in many settlements they voted en masse for OĽaNO. In some of them, they even got up to 90 percent of the votes.

Well, this is not proven, but the Union of Roma in Slovakia, as this was not paid,  therefore filed a criminal complaint against Igor Matovič and the Pollákovs last week.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia, the Elections, and Roma

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The Union of Roma in Slovakia filed a criminal complaint in connection with a 500-euro payment promised for voting for Matovič and Pollák party. According to the chairman of the civic association František Tanko, Roma were deceived.

“These days, a number of residents of Roma settlements contacted us with a problem that is a consequence of the promises of Matovič and the Pollák family of deputies. It is a promise that if they vote for them in the elections, they will receive 500 euros. People who believed them borrowed money from loan sharks and are now in big personal trouble. Matovič and the Pollákovs grossly deliberately deceived and abused the poor Roma. They knew that they could not accurately understand their misleading promises and that they would get their votes in the vision of quick and easy funding,” said Tanko.

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