Monthly Archives: janvier 2023

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovakia: Manifestation Video

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Slovakia: Manifestation Video

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.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovakia: Manifestations

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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.

France Nouvelles d'Europe de l'ouest

French Chronicle …

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Almost no news in France about Roma. A reportage in the Šutka, deemed to be the “capital” of the Roma – a reportage that was already shown on Swiss TV some time back (we reported). Other news is just a fire in a squat in Grenoble.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovakia: Murder

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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.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovénie

Slovenia: Novi Mesto

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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.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovénie

Slovenia: Discrimination

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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.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Ukraine

Ukraine: Two Brothers

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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.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovak Census

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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.

Allemagne Nouvelles d'Europe de l'ouest

Germany, Roma, and Education

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When Sinti and Roma are mentioned in school lessons, it is mostly as victims of the genocide, according to the sociologist Patočková. She calls for a rethink. The Conference of Ministers of Education decided in December to want to teach the history and current situation of the Sinti and Roma in lessons in the future. She negotiated the recommendations and signed them as a representative of the Alliance for Solidarity with the Sinti and Roma of Europe.

Veronika Patočková hopes are: I hope that the situation in the education system will improve – both for the children and young people from the Sinti and Roma communities and for everyone else. More than half a million Roma and Sinti live in Germany. In education, however, they rarely occur. That needs to change. We hope that the decision is a first step in this direction.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovakia: Murder

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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.

Autriche Nouvelles d'Europe de l'ouest

EU Dream Road in Austria

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The EU project “Dream Road” dealt with strategies to improve the living conditions of the Roma in Europe. Austria, represented by the Roma adult education center in Burgenland, dealt, among other things, with the inclusion of Roma in politics. A great success is the commitment for a central memorial for the Roma Holocaust in Vienna.

Bosnie Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Bosnia: Human Trafficking

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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.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovakia: Anna Koptova

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A Romni, Anna Koptova, received the Slovak state award. As a member of parliament in the 1990s, Anna Koptová worked to ensure that the Roma were recognized as a national minority. According to her, there is a lack of passion in the fight for Roma rights today. “It’s not enough to show up to meetings or have papal visit settlements and when they leave they just wipe the mud off their shoes.”

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Czech Republic’s first Roma Commissioner

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The Czech Republic has taken an important step in addressing the complex situation of Czech Roma. As recently as December 2022, the government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala created the post of government commissioner for Roma community affairs at its last meeting of the year and appointed 41-year-old Romni Lucie Fukova as the first Roma commissioner.

Europe

ERGO Report

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A report was published by the European network of Roma organizations ERGO, and was recently presented by the Swedish politician Soraya Post. The prominent Roma activist was a member of the European Parliament from 2014 to 2019. The current report, among other things, shows that in the field of health care, Roma do not have the same treatment as others. Thus, 22 percent of members of the Roma community suffer from chronic diseases, and every fourth person does not have health insurance. These data come from national studies and confirm that Roma have more difficult access to health care in several EU countries.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Nouvelles suisses North Macedonia

The Šutka

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Swiss television definitively not at its best. 8-10 Mio Roma (the Council of Europe cites 12 to 14, but then, the Swiss must know it better), and now a capital: the Šutka in Skopje.

It is always amazing what people can write or say about Roma with total impunity.

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