Commentary

Commentary: "Zero tolerance" is back in North Bohemia, a "sure bet" for the Czech local elections

16.5.2018 12:30 What image comes to mind when you hear the term "socially excluded locality"? Most people in the Czech Republic will imagine the Chanov housing estate in Most or the Janov housing estate in Litvínov, both towns in North Bohemia.  full story

Vojtěch Pačan: The gadje turned out in person for the Prague demonstration, but Romani people only express their criticism on Facebook

22.3.2018 13:39 I regret that many Romani people on Facebook are criticizing the demonstration against racism that took place last weekend in Prague. That demonstration was about you, about us Roma.  full story

Czech and Slovak Victims of Coercive Sterilization Await Justice

8.3.2018 8:21 In November 2017, nine governments of the United Nations urged the Czech Republic to provide compensation to women – in particular Romani women and women with disabilities – coercively sterilized between the 1960s and 2004. The Czech government is expected to provide an answer to these Governments in the UN Human Rights Council in March.  full story

Štefan Horvát: Okamura should not lead the lower house, Communists have harmed and are harming Roma, Czech Justice Minister should stay

4.3.2018 7:54 The news that Czech MP Okamura will remain in his function as vice-chair of the lower house of Parliament has really infuriated me - it is clear to all of us why he should be dismissed. We are a democratic country and it is absolutely unacceptable for anybody here to say what Mr Okamura has said and is continuing to say.

 full story

Stano Daniel: A message from Slovakia. First, words fall. Then people.

27.2.2018 13:05 On Monday, February 26, Slovakia suffered from a shock. The frost outside came into households, offices, and workplaces. It was impossible to feel anything else while looking at the news. A 27-year-old journalist and his partner had been shot dead.  full story

Czech Police officer explains why he donated to Romani Scholarships

18.2.2018 10:44 One day a few months ago I saw a hate campaign online by some Czech citizens against a primary school in Teplice. Then I found out that other Czech citizens had organized a collection for the children of that school and to support Romani students.

 full story

Julius Zajac: Ascendancy of extremists and liars may augur a new kind of totalitarianism in the Czech Republic

15.2.2018 7:04 A President who has won election thanks to a brazen (non)-campaign, among other things. A President whom the courts have ruled is a liar.  full story

Patrik Banga: How can people in the Czech Republic write about reviving the concentration camps?

10.2.2018 7:25 I have just read online, for the third time in the last several hours, the opinion that the concentration camps should be revived, and not surprisingly, one such opinion was posted by a commenter to the Facebook profile of Tomio Okamura. For several dozens of hours I have been thinking about whether I basically can even say anything about what is going on because I am in a stage where I am afraid to say anything - and that is because the moment I say something, I begin to receive hate mail and racist messages that disgust me so much that I have even stopped blogging on the blog site that I myself am in charge of.  full story

Jan Cverčko: Romale, vote for Jiří Drahoš!

22.1.2018 11:22 In the first round of voting for president it has been demonstrated that the current Czech President, Miloš Zeman, is not as dominant as it seemed - personally, I voted for Michal Horáček, and he deserves all honor and respect in defeat. Unfortunately, he was not selected for the second round, and I really regret that, because I can imagine him as a decent, humane, wise President of the Czech Republic.  full story

Opinion: Running a nationalist party in Europe is a very good business plan

21.12.2017 9:43 According to the director of the Consortium of Non-Governmental Organizations Working with Migrants, Anna Dumont, running nationalist parties in the Czech Republic is a very good business plan for those in charge of them. "As a result of their gains in the recent elections, the SPD has been given from the state budget CZK 54 million [EUR 2 million] plus another CZK 20 million [EUR 777 700] annually per elected MP. This is a business. This is a machine for producing money that functions effectively, and not just in our country. This is a perfect way to cheat the voters. All of these party leaders have known, from the beginning, that they will be unable to fulfill any of their promises," Dumont said in her speech at last weekend's demonstration against the Prague conference of the anti-immigration, hateful, xenophobic parties in the ENF group at the European Parliament, which news server Romea.cz is publishing here in full translation.  full story

Monika Mihaličková: In Romanes we never say "Me som cikános" ["I am a gypsy"]

20.12.2017 13:13 Romale, recently I have very frequently encountered debates on the subject of whether we are Roma or "gypsies". I comprehend that this society is confused and does not know what name to call our nation.  full story

Czech MP wants to close nonprofits, Romani psychology student diagnoses him

15.12.2017 6:39 As a young child I used to dream that one day a phase would arise in human society where the main priority would be empathy, love and peace. Unfortunately, I am 21 years old now and nothing of the sort has come to pass yet.  full story

Stanislava Ondová: The Czech courts use a double standard for non-Roma and Roma, I may emigrate

10.12.2017 14:41 The other night I was watching "Braveheart" on television, my favorite film about fighting for freedom, and during the advertisements I took a look at Facebook. I saw a commentary from one of my friends, clicked on it and read that the court has fined perpetrators "a mere EUR 4 for death threats and racist insults".  full story

Czech "November Challenge" against racism and xenophobia responds to online racist death threats against children and more

22.11.2017 16:05 Czech blogger Viktor Machek's "November Challenge" is responding to the rising wave of hatred and racism in the country. "Capturing these openly racist or xenophobic remarks is just the tip of the iceberg of what is happening around us day after day, and not just on the Internet. We are being confronted more and more openly with hate, with scorn, with open xenopobia or racism. Instead of strongly objecting to these negative displays we are silent. Just a few manage to speak up, to demonstrate their opinions, to object," Machek writes in his challenge, which news server Romea.cz translates in full here.

 full story

Marie Siváková: Reaction of an ordinary Roma/Czech woman to President's allegation that 90 % of "inadaptables" are Romani

14.11.2017 9:33 "Where is my homeland?" is the opening refrain of the national anthem of the Czech Republic, and I, too, am asking: Am I able to consider the Czech lands my home? A country where a certain part of the majority society hates me, considers me a parasite and "inadaptable"?  full story

Vojtěch Lavička: Czech elections 2017 are nothing but bad news for Romani people

23.10.2017 15:09 The elections to the Czech Chamber of Deputies are behind us and it is time to assess and review. As you certainly are well aware, ANO won the election, which is not a
surprise in and of itself.  full story

Slovakia: Police arrest Romani candidate, his daughter insists he is innocent

21.10.2017 8:20 On Friday, 13 October, hundreds of members of Slovakia's National Financial Police Unit, the National Crime Agency, and other police forces intervened against people in the regions of Banská Bystrica, Bratislava, Košice and Prešov. "Officers involved in Operation SHARK are seaching houses and other places in more than 40 buildings with the aim of documenting serious economic criminal activity," the police posted to their Facebook profile.

 full story

Alena Gronzíková: Romale, don't be lazy, vote! Otherwise Okamura will govern us!

13.10.2017 9:18 There are just a couple of days left before the parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic and the campaigns are in full swing and becoming more intense. The current estimates for the outcome, however, are not predicting anything positive.  full story

Iveta Bílková: Romani people must vote - it is a citizen's most basic right

6.10.2017 9:05 The elections for the Czech lower house are coming up. The Chamber of Deputies is where decisions are made about how the republic should run, the direction the state should head in, and mainly, where the citizens of this state are headed, including minorities.  full story

Commentary: Educator running for office confuses ideology with values

30.9.2017 9:25 So, what would you do in this situation: You are employed to work behind the counter of a department where the internal regulations forbid you to fill out forms on behalf of a client. Then an elderly lady comes to your counter whose body shakes so much that she cannot even hold a pen.  full story