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Czech Republic: "National Socialist - 21st Century Left Party" wants to fight social exclusion

22 October 2012
3 minute read

The “National Socialist – 21st Century Left Party” (Národní socialisté-levice 21. Století – NS-LEV 21) has presented its plan for fighting social exclusion on its website. Representatives of this new party, which was founded by several seasoned politicians, say they are “one of the few political parties in the country” that is aware of the “gravity of the problem of social exclusion, which negatively influences the lives of many people throughout the Czech Republic, primarily in the former industrial areas of the Ústí Region.”

The plan, authored by Lucie Kokavcová, was presented by her and party Vice-Chair Tereza Holišíková at a seminar entitled “The Fight against Social Exclusion” yesterday in Teplice. The party presented its solution to this negative phenomenon as part of NS-LEV 21’s electoral program.

The declaration accompanying the plan reads as follows:

“We perceive social exclusion as a very complicated problem demanding a comprehensive solution. It is not possible to just propose and apply short-term, populist measures in order to address it.

The basis of the NS-LEV 21 program, in which we are dedicating ourselves to the fight against social exclusion, is the implementation of changes in four basic areas of life: Employment, housing, education and security. We consider it vitally necessary to create new jobs. If elected, we will achieve this by saving the enterprises in industrial zones. We will facilitate the entry of new investors and support the creation of social enterprises, active employment policies, and a transparent employment system.

In the area of housing, we will implement the provision of a sufficient number of social housing units and other forms of accommodation (e.g., shelters for families with children) and create a system of transparent housing which will contribute toward addressing the issue of social excluded localities. Another condition for the success of our fight against social exclusion is intervention into education. It is vitally necessary to support preschool education for socially excluded persons, the creation of teaching assistant positions to work with these pupils, support for socio-legal, psychological, special educational and legal services for schools, including career advising, and to ensure that socially excluded pupils do not attend the “practical” schools (previously the special schools) when there is no need for them to do so.

Since the majority population perceives social exclusion primarily as a security risk, the crime rate in excluded localities must be lowered, the number of police patrols in those areas must be increased, and there must also be an increase in the degree to which police officers are informed of the problems of socially excluded persons. Mutual trust between the police and socially excluded communities must be intensified.

Last but not least, social exclusion is often linked to the Romani community. The lack of information about the members of this ethnicity and the prejudices related to them that are held by the majority society are a serious problem. That is why in our program we are also proposing measures dedicated to this area such as including a chapter on the history of Romani people in the Czech Republic and in Europe into the curriculum and support Romani people through jobs in the public administration.”

Party chair Jiří Paroubek added that he considers the fight against social exclusion to be one of the party’s priorities. In his view it is particularly necessary to employ Romani people.

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