Czech politician known for anti-Gypsyism faces corruption charges

Czech MP Otto Chaloupka (Public Affairs – VV), who is considered by at least one commentator to be the “unofficial spokesperson of the Czech club of anti-Gypsyists”, is facing corruption charges. The Czech media have been reporting on his links to corruption for some time, but his anti-Gypsyism has been given voice only by the notorious Parlamentní listy, the tabloid news server which has long been conducting an anti-Romani campaign that has included completely fabricated reports.

Parlamentní listy’s recent interview with Chaloupka seems to be one of the few articles on the website that their editors didn’t invent. Proof of this is the fact that Chaloupka has posted it to his own website. Here are some quotes from it:

Otto Chaloupka on “parasites”: “Romani leaders should first and foremost start living decently. They are just as much parasites on the Romani community as the Romani community is on the majority society.”

Otto Chaloupka on security: “If a 13-year-old Gypsy attacks me with a knife, I have the right to shoot him in the head. No one can evaluate my physical state compared to his. Such a thing is hard to judge at such a moment. If someone assaults me, I have the right to shoot off his thumb, because I don’t know if he won’t use the knife to slice me up. It doesn’t matter if he’s white or an Indian.”

Otto Chaloupka on employment: “Not working? You’re not entitled to anything. Have you started to steal? Go to prison. I have heard the opinion expressed that when we take their welfare away they will commit even more crime. No, if you do something and go to jail, you’ll think twice about repeating it. Before the revolution it was mandatory to work. The Gypsies had to work hard. They got shovels, some of them just used them to lean on, but in some places they had to be present during work hours and at least pretend to work. Today they don’t have to work, they just keep complaining, a wave of physical violence against the majority society is rising, and we just keep backing down. What are we waiting for? For them to chop us up on the streets with machetes and steal pensioners’ wallets and such with impunity?”

Otto Chaloupka on the problem of crime and finances: “I don’t consider Romani people a problem because they are a minority, but because they are troublemakers who are a burden on society. Most people from that minority fall into that category of troublemakers. What is problematic is that they cost a lot of money and contribute nothing, it’s been like that for generations with them, and they are making no effort to change anything. They cost us hundreds of millions of crowns and what do we get for that money? Burglaries, physical assault, shoplifting, etc.”

Otto Chaloupka on the transfer of Romani children into mainstream elementary schools: “That would be a problem because there are notorious cases of children from decent families having problems with children from inadaptable families because they are really inadaptable. I understand the effort to do something with this and try to include them, to re-educate a generation of inadaptables and give them all the conditions under which they might become decent people who won’t be a burden and won’t be despised, but how many years has it already been the case that we have been doing our best to include them somehow and it’s had not effect?”

Otto Chaloupka on the courts: “If someone attacks a Gypsy, it’s a racial crime and they are given the harshest possible sentence, but when a Gypsy beats up a white woman, rapes and tortures a 12-year-old white boy or robs an old lady, the punishment is equivalent to one for pickpocketing. This cannot continue, we are heading for a real mess. When people see the state isn’t taking care of them, they take matters into their own hands and it will be bad – and it doesn’t surprise me in the least.”

The Corruption and Financial Crimes Unit (Útvar odhalování korupce a finanční kriminality) has asked the Chamber of Deputies to strip Chaloupka of his parliamentary immunity. Police intend to prosecute him for the crime of taking a bribe.

The Office of the Chair of the Chamber of Deputies, Czech MP Miroslava Němcová (Civic Democrats – ODS), informed the press of the anti-corruption police request to strip Chaloupka of his immunity, which was made last Friday. Němcová said the request is also linked to charges filed by Chaloupka’s former assistant, Vratislav Vařejka, who claims he had to regularly return part of his salary to the politician. Criminal proceedings in that matter were initiated a year ago.

Jaroslav Ibehej, a spokesperson for the anti-corruption police, has confirmed this information: “We have requested that a Public Affairs MP be stripped of immunity so he can be prosecuted for the crime of taking a bribe. This matter concerns criminal charges filed against the MP in the past by his assistant.”

The charges filed by Vratislav Vařejka, an entrepreneur from Hodonín who describes himself on the VV website as on the waiting list for party membership, were revealed to the public a year ago. At the time, Czech Television published a recording made by Vařejka of MP Otto Chaloupka saying the following too Vařejka about his assistant salary of CZK 35 000 monthly: “Keep 10, the other 25 will be invoiced for you by either me or through some firm. You pay taxes on CZK 10 000, I pay taxes on CZK 25 000.” Vařejka then filed criminal charges.

Czech MP Miroslava Němcová has sent the police request to the lower house’s Immunity and Mandate Community, which will discuss it and make a recommendation to their fellow MPs as to whether to strip the politician of his immunity or not. “The committee will most probably convene next week,” Czech MP Jeroným Tejc (Czech Social Democratic Party – ČSSD) said.

Chaloupka is the third VV member whom police intend to prosecute for bribery. A court recently sentenced VV member Vít Bárta for taking bribes; that verdict has yet to take effect. Former VV member Jaroslav Škárka also faced suspicions of taking bribes and was sent behind bars for three years for fraud. The judge also banned him from performing his mandate as MP. Both Bárta and Škárka have appealed their verdicts.