Category Archives: Slovakia

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovakia: Football Tournament

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The EQUAL CUP football tournament is taking place in Záhorí under the auspices of the Human in Danger organization, with the participation of students from Lozorn and Plavecký Štvrtek. As part of the Better Future for Young Roma project, which is financed by the Volkswagen Slovakia Foundation, the organization Human in Danger works with young people from marginalized Roma communities (MRK) in western Slovakia, primarily in Záhorí.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Erik Žigmund

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Erik Žigmund is a successful Slovak musician, and a Rom. He says: “There are very few Roma in Trenčín, I was probably the only one in the whole school”. He also said he was bullied in school. He speaks about a friend who died and abot commemoration in this interview.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Roma and the Slovak Election

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An article on the press reaction to the fact that around 80% of the Roma in Eastern Slovakia voted for the Oľano party. It wouldn’t be an issue but for the implicit attempt in those articles to portray the Roma as stupid, who let Igor Matovič, the Ol’ano leader, fool them. Worse, as the author says, is that the media is also assuming that the Roma vote was bought.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

OĽaNO and Roma

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The big surprise of the last elections in Slovakia was the re-emergence of the OĽaNO party, which took almost all localities in Eastern Slovakia with a large Roma minority.

Electoral fraud was immediately suspected. But no concrete cases were found so far. The explanation of this success was presented by Igor Matovič, the party head, together with Peter Pollák, a Roma representative of this party. They said that it was the fear of the populist (and anti-Roma) Fico who drove Roma to vote en masse for OĽaNO.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovak Parliament

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There will be 6 Roma in the new Slovak Parliament. 6 out of 150, so not quite yet at the population level. 4 of them are from the OĽaNO party.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovakia: How not to do it!

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The municipality of Telgárt, where a fire destroyed the Roma settlement, has neither the money nor the means to deal with the situation. The Roma are still housed in tents.. The district office does not have the capacity to resolve the situation, and only the county has the competence.

Th temperatures are dropping rapidly, and soon someone will freeze.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovak Elections and Roma

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It seems that Roma voted overwhelmingly (up to 80%) for the conservative and anti-establishment party OĽaNO party led by Igor Matovič. There are a few dissonant voices and the police is investigating suspicions of electoral corruption.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovak Elections and Roma

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Among Roma, the OĽaNO coalition dominated with more than 70% of the vote in some villages. At least they did vote for the populist Fico and his SMER party.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Voting in Slovakia

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The story of voting in a village with a majority of Roma. They voted on local elections, but not so much on the national ones.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovenia and Roma

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The number of articles on Roma criminality and problems I exploding in Slovenia.

After more than 31,000 voters’ signatures were collected for amendments to four laws prepared and submitted to the National Assembly, which were prepared by the mayors of 11 municipalities from Southeastern Slovenia and Posavija, the legislative process began. These proposals, although they do not mention Roma, are clearly aimed against them.

The proposed laws received sufficien support in the State Council of the Republic of Slovenia this week. In the coming days, the members of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia will begin to decide on changes related to the Roma issue.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Brawl

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This is bad. A group of Roma from Lužianky brutally attacked three men, also Roma from Močenko. It happened in the parking lot in front of a department store in Nitra. They attacked with knives and even fired shots. Three men ended up in hospital. They allegedly fought over a 14-year-old girl, in whom the family of the attackers was interested.

The fight took place last week in the parking lot in front of the department store. Three men from Močenko were attacked by a group from Lužian women. “About 9-10 armed people jumped out after us, plus three or four women had the sprays.” said Stanislav Lakatoš, vajda Močenok in Romanes.

Looks like a fight between Vlach Roma.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovakia, Business, and Roma

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Marcela Tokošová, the director of a Slovak company called Kovotvar, restored the production cooperative on its feet ten years ago. She is nominated for the TREND Entrepreneur of the Year 2023 award  and employs many Roma.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovakia and Displaced People

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Roma in Telgárt have been living in military tents in makeshift conditions for more than two months following a fire in the Roma settlement there. When it rains, water flows inside them.

After the tragic night fire on July 20, more than a hundred people, including approximately sixty children, were left without a roof over their heads. One man died. After nine weeks, Roma families are still huddled in six military tents, which were provided as emergency accommodation by the Department of the Interior.

The situation has still not been resolved.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovakia, Politics, and Roma Education

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Every day there are more schools in the east of Slovakia with up to 50 percent of Roma pupils.  Non-Roma Slovak parents take their children out of school and look for other options for them. They are said to be afraid of infectious diseases, bullying and fights. Why do all solutions fail? An interview with education expert Martin Šmilňák (KDH).

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Slovakia: Relocation

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Roma from the settlement near the ecoduct of the D3 highway in Kysuck, near the border crossing in Svrčinovec, were to be moved by the end of March. It only succeeded six months after the deadline. Petitions, filed criminal reports and dissatisfaction of people in places where an external company provided them with accommodation did not help either.

Part of the Roma were relocated to a house in Lupušné Pažiaty in the district of Kysucké Nové Mesto, and another family found a new home in a property in Rakova on Zákopecká cesta. Even the house in Čadc – Podzávoz, where the settlers were moved by a truck of the National Highway Company in the early evening of Wednesday, September 13, is no longer abandoned. The rest of the inhabitants of the settlement were moved to the customs building in Makovo, where they found temporary accommodation.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovakia: Racist Attacks

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MP Jozef Pročko (OĽaNO) has a sprained cervical spine and a bruised head after Monday’s incident in Lučenec where he was attacked. At the press conference, he appeared with a fixation collar and announced that he had filed a criminal complaint in connection with the physical attacks on his person.

Pročko, but also OĽaNO candidates Peter Pollák and Viliam Tankó talked about the escalating attacks at their meetings. “We are the target of verbal and physical attacks. Their reason is our Roma origin,” added Pollák.

It was a group of Roma candidates who led the election campaign on Monday in Lučenec, where Prochko also came to support them. “Unknown people started disrupting our event. They shouted at us that we are gypsies, parasites,” Pollák told journalists, adding that after the verbal attacks, there were also physical attacks on Proček.

  • Poslanec Jozef Pročko (OĽaNO) má po pondelkovom incidente v Lučenci podvrtnutú krčnú chrbticu a pomliaždenú hlavu. In: Dennik N. 19.09.2023. https://dennikn.sk/minuta/3577168/
Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovak Uprising and Roma

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Slovakia commemorated one of the most important events in its modern history – the beginning of the partisan rebellion against the Nazi regime. At least 130,000 Slovaks and, according to historical sources, another 8,400 foreign fighters of thirty different nationalities fought in the Slovak mountains from August 29, 1944 until the end of the war.

In addition to Czechs, Spaniards, Italians and/or Ruthenians, the Roma also joined the resistance, explains ethnographer and historian Zuzana Kumanová.

“In 1940, a military law was passed, on the basis of which Roma boys did not become soldiers and performed substitute military service only in the 6th unarmed work battalion. That is where labelling, marking people unsuitable for the defence of the homeland, appeared for the first time. And other regulations, which were related to displacement outside the villages, in turn created space for the support of partisans,” the ethnographer and historian points out.

In January 1945, for example, the German Wehrmacht herded 60 Roma, including women and children, into huts in Čierno Balog and set fire to the houses. All died on the spot. However, historian and ethnographer Kumanová reminds us that Roma victims of World War II are not often talked about. The Ma bisteren project is therefore trying to raise awareness of the Roma Holocaust.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovakia Mayor

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A Roma mayor, often described as the “Roma king” Attila Géňa died under suspicious circumstances which are being investigated by the police. The tragic event affected the entire village near Prešov and its surroundings. He was run over by a wheel loader and suffered serious injuries, from which he succumbed on Wednesday, September 13.

The multiple Romani candidate for mayor from the Prešov region became mayor for the second time last year, but in 2018, after winning, he had to vacate his mayoral seat due to several crimes, including allegations of sexual abuse.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovakia and Roma Displaced People

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A Roma settlement in Telgárt, Slovakia almost totally burnt out in July. Now, the Slovak state announced they will end the aid for those families who lost their homes. Will they also take away the tents they currently live in?

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Slovak Politics and the Holocaust

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The OĽaNO chairman  and former prime minister Igor Matovič and the president of the Republic Milan Uhrík discussed in the program O 5 minut 12 on RTVS. He admitted that he “doesn’t go much” to his job as an MEP, but despite this, he earned more than 400,000 euros in the European Parliament.

At the beginning of the show, the moderator confronted Milan Uhrík with his past statements about the Holocaust. Uhrík did not directly condemn the Holocaust of Jews, Roma, LGBTI+ people, etc. “Certainly none of us wishes, neither now, nor in the past, nor in the future, that anyone, be it Igor Matovič, Milan Uhrík, your children, our children, anyone, would be taken to some concentration camp because he is small, fat big, white, black or whatever, we don’t even have to debate it.’

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