Czech NGO consortium RomanoNet calls on leadership of "Mayors and Independents" party to remove mayor from their candidate list and is filing a crime report against him

Declaration by the RomanoNet organization on the Mayor of Poděbrady’s racist remarks

This mayor, who has said he would most prefer that Romani people be shot, should be punished by his party leadership to set an example.

A person who refuses to solve problems together with the socially “inadaptable”, as Mayor Červinka is calling Romani residents of his town, is not somebody who should be reseated on the municipal assembly or be mayor there for the next four years because he is not the mayor for everybody.  

We, as representatives of civil society, consider the Mayor of Poděbrady’s remarks monstrous and to be motivating others to hold attitudes that are antigypsyist and intolerant. 

RomanoNet, through our member organizations, recently contributed to drafting the Czech Government Strategy for the Equality, Inclusion and Participation of Roma (the Roma integration strategy) 2021-2030, which was adopted on 10 May 2021. 

In that administrative strategy, the executive branch has clearly committed to combating antigypsyism and displays of intolerance. 

Through his remarks, the mayor is perpetrating institutional racism. We consider what he has done to be quite dangerous and we believe it can only lead in the future to intensifying the Romani community’s social exclusion in Poděbrady and the surrounding area.

As civil society members, we believe the leadership of the STAN movement has no choice but to remove the mayor from the candidate list in the upcoming local elections for this behavior. 

We hereby call on the leadership of the STAN movement to remove Jaroslav Červinka as a candidate for the elections this fall. 

This situation unfortunately reminds us of the conduct of some politicians in the runup to the last local elections in 2018, when anti-Romani attitudes frequently got them votes. 

RomanoNet will also file, as soon as possible, a crime report against the Mayor of Poděbrady.

RomanoNet was created in February 2017 for the purpose of coordinating and providing auspices to cooperation among non-governmental and non-profit organizations working in the Czech Republic with the Romani minority. Its mission is to advocate for an inclusion policy that emphasizes the upholding of human rights, equality, the participation of Romani people in public life, and their engagement in decision-making processes. 

The current members of RomanoNet are: Awen Amenca, IQ Roma servis, Khamoro, Kleja, Otevřená společnost, Romano jasnica, ROMEA, Romodrom, Slovo 21, Společně-Jekhetane and Vzájemné soužití.