Tag Archives: Racism

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Mixed Family

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Mixed Family

The story of a Czech Romni married to a non-Roma man. She starts by saying that a strange woman shouted at me not to speak Romani to my son in a shop!

She says:

I am a Romani woman. For some, it is just a word, for me it is my identity, my history and my pride. My husband Petr is Czech, a “gadžo”, and together we are raising our two-year-old son Davídek. Our home is a place where two worlds, two cultures meet. We speak Czech together, but I have also spoken Romani to Davídek since birth. I want him to know the language of his grandparents, to understand the songs and stories that shaped our family. I want him to be proud of both halves of his body.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Tomio Okamura

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Tomio Okamura

The Czech politician Tomio Okamura and his SPD party are facing charges of inciting hatred. The case is related to last year’s election posters in which the party attacked migrants and Roma.

Would be good if this goes to court before the upcoming elections…

Germany News Western Europe

Germany, Justice, and Prejudice

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Germany, Justice, and Prejudice

The Gera Regional Court will not open a trial against controversial administrative judge Bengt Fuchs. The public prosecutor’s office had accused him of incitement to hatred.

In August 2019, Fuchs allegedly wrote a comment under a Facebook post in a student fraternity group that was deemed incitement to hatred. Fuchs allegedly equated the Sinti and Roma ethnic groups with traveling gangs of thieves. In the group, the user “Bengt-Christian Fuchs” had described the group as “rotational Europeans with a weakness in property attribution.”

If this is not racist, what is?

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Fire in Bulgaria

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Fire in Bulgaria

A fire erupted in a poor neighbourhood in Bulgaria. A 49-year-old local resident was detained. An argument broke out between him and the woman he lives with. Then he lit a blanket and caused a fire. The buildings were built of highly flammable materials.

According to the paper this is a fire “with a Roma flavour” … What does that mean, apart from obvious racist views?

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Serbia and Roma

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Serbia and Roma

Roma Party President Srđan Šajn today called on parliamentary parties to initiate the impeachment of Minister for Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue Dema Berisha for his statement on Roma, and the competent judicial authorities to initiate the investigation of his criminal responsibility.

During a visit to the Moravički District, Berisha said that he does not separate Roma from other residents, but that it is necessary for them to finish school, be engaged in work and useful members of society, because “they must understand that neither the state, nor municipalities, nor local governments are ATMs”.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Another Mayor on Roma

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Another Mayor on Roma

Novo Mesto (Slovenia) Mayor Gregor Macedoni spoke about the Roma “issue”, calling for systemic solutions. According to him, security has been steadily deteriorating in recent years, especially in southeastern Slovenia. We are really seeing this on the ground. Above all, it is worrying and real, and should also concern everyone in Ljubljana, that these crimes are increasingly bold and violent, that they are directed at officials… Police officers are being beaten, teachers are being slapped, doctors in the emergency room are being threatened. So, in this country we do not know how to respond systematically. The police are on the ground, but the system will also have to adapt to these new forms of crimes.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria and Roma

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Bulgaria and Roma

Representatives of the Roma community accused some of the Bulgarian political elite of reacting unreasonably harshly to situations in which Roma were involved. They cited as an example, statements after the incident in Vidin, in which a 13-year-old boy inflicted moderate bodily harm on another child. According to the Chairman of the National Council of Roma in Bulgaria, Petko Asenov, the reactions of Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Zafirov and MEP Angel Dzambazki were deliberately exaggerated and aimed at ethnic hatred. Asenov pointed out that in the case in Vidin “it is a scandal on a domestic basis and all boys of Roma origin cannot be put under a common denominator.”

Montenegro News Eastern Europe

Montenegro: Protest

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Montenegro: Protest

The Roma Council of Montenegro has strongly condemned the public statement of Veljo Stanišić, winner of the highest state award – the Thirteenth of July Award – who, commenting on Miloš Karadaglić’s decision to refuse the award, said in a public television appearance on TV Gradska: “That’s how Gypsies work.”

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Again

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Again

Yet another article about the Roma “Problem” in Slovenia. According to the article, Dolenjska and Posavje have been facing an increase in crime among the Roma for a long time, there are no comprehensive solutions, although the mayors of SE Slovenia and Posavje have submitted proposals for legislative amendments to the National Assembly. The coalition rejected everything.

They interviewed a MP on that topic.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Political Racism

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Political Racism

The police have closed the investigation into the case of racist Czech political extremist party SPD posters from last year’s election campaign, in which the chairman of this opposition movement, MP Tomio Okamura, and the SPD as a legal entity are accused. The Novinky server wrote on Thursday evening that criminal investigators are now waiting for the party’s new representative to familiarize themselves with the investigation file. The police are accusing Okamura and the SPD of inciting hatred, which carries a penalty of up to three years in prison.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Racism in Poland

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Racism in Poland

Izabela Jaśkowiak, president of the Harangos Romani Educational Association of Poland on her experiences with Racism against Roma in Poland.

Being ostracised in school and university, racist comments, she had to endure all.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Many articles this week in France. Most were devoted to the acquittal of the mayor of Villeron, near Paris and of 5 of the residents of that town for having voluntarily chased away Roma from a camp and destroyed their housing two years ago. The mayor clamours he is not a racist, well, that can be discussed, and one Romani organisation is considering an appeal to that decision. The other news with several articles is a fire in a Roma camp near Paris in Ris-Orangis. Other news are the usual ones: In Western France, how to distribute the “effort” among communes, i.e. how to apportion Roma to different towns; and the story of a landowner whose land has been occupied by Roma.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Another one of those

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Another one of those

Another case of a Romano child who beat up a non-Roma Bulgarian, this time unconscious. According to the newspaper, “Everyone in Vidin knows him – a 13-year-old child, already “known” to the police, with a diagnosis of “mental retardation” and dozens of incidents behind him. He went through a Crisis Center, bullied his peers, threatened teachers, was a bully on TikTok. And yet he was left to move freely. While beating another child unconscious on the street.”

Summary: Roma are retarded violent people, and they are left free by justice. This is really bad.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

“Pleasant Racism”

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“Pleasant Racism”

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer) called the withdrawal of social benefits from the poorest “pleasant racism”.

“During the inspection day at the Ministry of Labour, the Prime Minister once again presented the intention to import tens of thousands of foreign workers from third countries – including Muslims from Uzbekistan. At the same time, he defended the law that takes away benefits in material need from the poorest in Slovakia,” the movement said. Pollák added that while the Prime Minister wants to import tens of thousands of Muslims from Uzbekistan, he is taking away the chance for Slovak citizens to gain a foothold in the labor market at home, including the Roma. “Instead of real solutions to support domestic employment, he has chosen the path against his own citizens – importing cheap labour from abroad,” the MP emphasized.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Roma Problem

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Roma Problem

An article which effectively attacks money spent on Roma. The article is perhaps well meant, but panders to stereotypes. They live in bad conditions, law doesn’t apply to them, and since the government failed, many municipalities are taking the law in their own hands.

In the last ten years, approximatively between 60 and 90 million euros have been spent on integration, without visible results. In addition, according to the article, an additional 100 to 150 million euros have been spend in the same period on Roma programs.

The question not asked is where this money vanished? Certainly not in Roma hands …

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

In Besançon, in Eastern France, the Roma community commemorated the 13th of June marking the expulsion of Roma from Kosovo in 1999. In Toulouse, in the Southwest of France, a camp that has been standing for 19 years will soon be closed. 130 Romanian Roma families will lose their houses.

Finally, an article about racism in France that seems to be less prevalent than expected. Racism seems to go together with the fear of migrants.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

“Gypsies don’t call, don’t write”

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“Gypsies don’t call, don’t write”

In Slovakia, in housing advertisement, these words are often found. Without any shame, nd unfortunately also without consequences…

According to Sára Danielová, is a junior researcher at the Roma Advocacy and Research Centre and an internal doctoral student at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of St. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, discrimination is common. “The apartment is no longer up to date. It is already occupied. We apologize.” Landlords are startled when a Roma person shows up during an inspection. Some admit the truth: “The neighbours don’t want it. We don’t want the properties in the village to lose value.”

Bad.

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