Current government unable to solve Romany problems-PM

The current government will not be able to solve the problems of marginal social groups of the population of whom Romanies make up a large majority, Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek (senior governing Civic Democrats, ODS) told journalists during his visit to Usti-nad-Labem’s Maticni street today.

The government is preparing the establishment of an agency that will be in charge of these problems, Topolanek said (more here…).

What is most important is that pressure should be exerted, for instance as regards welfare benefits, to bring about an increase in the level of education among Romanies, he said.

All other measures are mere tools by which the majority society will only buy peace, he said, adding that Maticni street was certainly not a problem of the Romany community.

The street became a symbol of Romanies’ problems in October 1999 when the authorities of the Nestemice neighbourhood started to build a fence in Maticni street. They said they thus wanted to protect the owners of private houses who repeatedly complained about the noise and disorder made by the residents of flats for rent defaulters on the other side of Maticni street.
However, the residents of the flats, mostly Romanies, protested against the fence, along with Czech and foreign human rights activists, as they viewed it as an expression of racism.

The ceramic fence was dismantled after six weeks.

The case was closed when the owners of private houses left the locality. The Usti nad Labem town hall bought their houses from them and it also received money from the government to finance the dismantling of the fence.

At present, there are almost no Romanies living in Maticni street. According to local resident Gizela Lackova, only ten Romany families remained in two houses. Lackova told journalists today that most Romanies had moved because they did not want to live in the street.

Other Romanies complained observers were constantly visiting the street, that it has a bad reputation though it is not as problematic as believed.

Usti nad Labem mayor Jan Kubata considered the Predlice district to be more problematic and he wanted to take Topolanek there instead of Maticni street.

According to estimates, there are 11,000 to 15,000 Romanies in Usti nad Labem with its population of 97,000.
In the census in 2001, only 700 people officially declared themselves Romanies.