Czech presidential candidate Michal Horáček on International Romani Day: Believe in yourselves, go for your dreams

More than 3 000 people, the vast majority of them Romani, assembled on Saturday afternoon on Svatopluk Čech Square in Ostrava to celebrate International Romani Day. The initiators of the event were two Romani students, Vladimír Čermák and Vladimír Kočko.

Roma Day is the occasion for all Roma from all over the world to remember the troubled history of our people. It is also the opportunity to reflect on what needs to be done to preserve our identity, our culture and, most of all, our language.

Romani children from the Čhavorenge choral ensemble led by Ida Kelarová have written a letter to the Czech Police and to Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš in which they remind them of the incident they experienced during the summer of 2016 and the fact the Czech Police have not yet apologized to them for their response. "In August 2016 we were at the Romano drom summer school for the arts. As we returned from a treasure hunt, a gentlemen ran out of his house shouting racist abuse at us. He then fired a weapon. It was absolutely close by. We were all terrified. We were afraid somebody would assault us. There were some very young children among us," the children's letter reads.