Czech Republic: Local Romani people protest against DSSS rally

Roughly 300 people attended a rally by the Workers’ Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti – DSSS) on the town square in Vimperk today. Party chair Tomáš Vandas took advantage of the opportunity to repeat the usual disinformation, half-truths and lies that are disseminated on the internet about Romani people, including the purely invented claim that crime in the town is high because of them.

Police have repeatedly declared that crime rates in Vimperk are some of the lowest in the region. Police spokesperson Jiří Matzner said police did not have to address any conflicts related to the assembly.

“Altogether, 300 locals came to the square to take a look. Roughly 50 of them were promoters of the party,” Czech daily Mladá fronta DNES reported from the scene.

Opponents of the DSSS, including local Romani people, also came to Vimperk. They brought protest banners with them in the form of childrens’ drawings. There were no skirmishes between them and the more numerous group of their adversaries. Advent markets taking place concurrently down the hill from the square were not interrupted. After two hours of making speeches, the organizers ended the event and dispersed.

Mayor Bohumil Petrášek said about 120 – 150 Romani people live in Vimperk but that only approximately four of them espoused Romani nationality during the last census. One particular small group of about seven Romani individuals is allegedly problematic. On the basis of recent monitoring, the town leadership has enhanced municipal police patrols in the places where these people live, have intensified monitoring of gaming rooms because they consider playing the slot machines to be welfare abuse, and have started monitoring the living conditions of children from socially excluded families. Next year the town plans to enhance its CCTV system in public places.

“Vimperk and the entire Prachatice district enjoys the lowest crime rate in the south of Bohemia. For example, since the start of the year there have been only two muggings in the Vimperk area. Last year there were approximately eight. We have unequivocally noticed a decrease in all other areas of crime as well. Even after the recent enhancement of the patrols we have not noticed any marked shift in violations of the law,” Matzner said.

Socially excluded residents live in Kostelní, Pasovské, Rožmberské, and Steinbrenerovo streets, as well as U Lázní street. However, the apartment buildings in which they live are regularly monitored by police and property administrators. One official said the local Romani community is afflicted by both drugs and prostitution. “The problems will start next year, when government restrictions on welfare kick in. I know two or three cases of Romani people who have gotten stuck on the merry-go-round of indebtedness and are living solely on welfare. If they won’t be able to draw on that support I don’t know what they will live on, because they won’t find work,” he noted.

On Monday, the town hall banned the announced DSSS rally because of the anti-Romani sentiments expressed in the discussion on a Facebook page called “Movement for a Vimperk without Inadaptable Roma” (“Hnutí za Vimperk bez nepřizpůsobivých Romů”). The Regional Court in České Budějovice revoked the town hall’s decision on the basis of a lawsuit filed by the DSSS arguing that anonymous discussions online could not be used as justification for banning an assembly.