Czech Greens: Janáčková should resign

The human rights section of the Czech Green Party has emphatically protested the statements made by Czech Senator Liana Janáčková about the family from Bedřiška which was recently attacked there. The settlement is part of the Mariánské Hory district of which Janáčková has been mayor for many years and from which she has long lobbied against minorities in the Czech Republic. Her statements not only frequently cross the line of ethics and proper behavior, but are primarily dangerous to society, as they foment racist attitudes.

Senator Janáčková insinuated that the victimized family needed proof of discrimination in order to be granted asylum in Canada or England more easily. It was only by sheer luck that the family did not lose their daughter in the attack.

The human rights section considers it madness to even think of implicating the victims of the attack in such a way, which makes it all the more egregious that such implications were expressed, especially by an elected official who is both a mayor and a senator. The say every respectable person should unequivocally condemn the senator’s behavior, and that she should not only apologize, she should resign her offices.

“Senator Liana Janáčková has been crossing the line of proper behavior for some time. Her statements come from a world where social sensitivity and tolerance towards diversity in society are unknown concepts. Such remarks simply serve to document how the senator thinks and what kinds of solutions she would most like to propose. They take us back 70 years to a time when racism and xenophobia were everyday phenomena, an ideology that overpowered no small part of the Europe we now live in. It is a tragedy that in the 21st century, anyone in a democracy can even think this way. She and everyone who ever voted for her should be ashamed,” says Josef Šmída, head of the Czech Green Party’s Expert Section on Human Rights.

A wave of hatred toward minorities in society has been rising recently in the Czech Republic. Šmída says this event is simply more proof of this fact: “We want a society where respect and tolerance for what is foreign are a natural, normal part of everyone’s everyday lives. Racism and xenophobia are blind alleys – they lead to conflicts that know no peaceful resolution, only hatred and violence.”