The Saturday edition of the Czech daily Lidové noviny reported that mayors of 18 municipalities in northern Bohemia are concerned that the upcoming municipal elections will mark the resumption of anti-Romani demonstrations in the region. In a letter to the Czech Government, they have complained that no one is addressing the situation of the Romani minority in the Šluknov district and that this failure could result in a new wave of the violent racist protests that inflamed the region three years ago.
"The overall atmosphere and situation is not changing much. We continue to witness drug trafficking and there is no pretense of any effort to address it," the newspaper quoted from the letter written by the Mayor of Krásná Lípa, Zbyněk Linhart.
"Unfortunately, even three years later, the absurd ‘system’ of co-payments and premiums for housing is still functioning, which leads not just to an enormous transfer of public monies into the pockets of speculators, but eggs on those who are buying up real estate and creating hotbeds, or if you prefer, ghettos, of this troubled group of people with the massive support of the state," the letter reads. In April the Czech Labor Ministry said it is designing an amendment to address the issue of the residential hotels the letter is referring to.
As of January 2015, the housing supplement for people in need living in residential hotels should be lower than the housing supplement for such persons living in apartments, and residential hotel facilities will be required to meet quality standards. After an eight-year gap, the ministry also wants to repeat its research into so-called excluded localities.
According to the results of such research published in 2006, there were more than 300 impoverished building complexes and neighborhoods throughout the Czech Republic housing around 80 000 people, most of them Romani. According to estimates by experts and findings from the field in recent years, the number of problematic localities has increased.
