The Slovenian opposition NSi proposes tightening criminal legislation for more serious crimes committed by minors, while the country’s president Nataša Pirc Musar warns against organizing municipals guards.
Citizen members of the Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs and representatives of the organization RomanoNet today issued a statement calling on the government of the Czech Republic to immediately suspend all decisions regarding the future of the Agency for Social Inclusion (ASZ) and to start a broad public discussion about its future. They stated that the participation of Roma in the ASZ is only a formal one.
Another article in the Slovak press about a survey on social benefits that dismantles the misconception that financial support for Roma is the main cause of high taxes and public finance deficits in Slovakia. This is a widespread myth in that country.
The survey checked that tamilies with more than three children receive 45 million euros a year through child allowance and parental allowance, which is just a drop in the ocean compared to total public spending. The number of children was chosen as a proxy, as ethnicity is not recorded in the statistics. The reasoning is that while not all families with more than three children are Roma, this will contain many of them.
A new study in Slovakia dispels the myth that the social benefits that Roma get is one of the main burden of the state and that this is the reason for high taxes. According to the study, families with more than three children, which often include Roma families, receive approximately 27 million euros per year in benefits in material need and additional payments. “This is the same amount that the government allocated for the construction of the National Football Stadium,” the report said.
The Slovenian president met the mayors of the municipalities of the Novo Mesto region regarding the Roma “Problem”. These mayors have proposed drastic measures to limit social benefits for Roma. They were not approved in parliament as they were obviously targeted at a minority, but the issues persist, and the mayors are pushing the government for action.
A vehement article in the Slovene press against the social help that Roma in that country are getting. According to the article, “Roma have the highest child benefits and social assistance in Slovenia, which prevents them from working, they live in non-profit apartments in settlements that have become ghettos, they do not pay rent, and they break in, threaten and attack everyone: the old, the young, women, the disabled. Among the Kočevci, because of the indifferent attitude of the government towards the increasingly serious Roma problem, it is boiling.”
Well, what about that fact that no-one in Slovenia would employ Roma?
The Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities published in the official gazette a public call for co-financing of social welfare programs for the year 2024, which would help prevent social hardships of vulnerable groups (read among others here Roma) in the areas of addiction, mental health and prevention of violence. 3.3 million euros are available.
Dana Ema Hrušková (55) never thought that she would one day work in social services. Together with her husband, she successfully ran a hardware business. The turning point came when she started cooperating with the non-profit organization Romodrom, which was just starting field work in socially excluded locations. That’s when she discovered that helping others fulfils her more than her own thriving business. Today, she works as a field worker in the Prague 14 Černý Most district and has more than 80 clients.
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