Czech Senator Jan Horník says he wants to work with excluded residents

This article is the first in a series of our questions and answer sessions with leading candidates from various political parties and groups running in the upcoming elections to Regional Authorities and the Czech Senate. We asked the candidates for their opinions on the integration of the Romani minority and how they would achieve improvements in this area. We were primarily interested in whether they would be calling upon Romani personalities to collaborate with them, as well as in their positions on education, housing and unemployment levels among people living in socially excluded localities, Romani people included. We also asked whether they intend to achieve calmer co-existence between majority-society and minority people.

We started our series with the Karlovy Vary Region. We sent our questions to these politicians:

Jaroslav Borka – KSČM (Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia)

Josef Hora – Hnutí nezávislých pro harmonický rozvoj měst a obcí (Independents’ Movement for the Harmonious Development of Towns and Villages)

Jan Horník – TOP 09 a Starostové pro Karlovarský kraj (TOP 09 and Mayors for Karlovy Vary Region)

Josef Novotný – ČSSD (Czech Social Democratic Party)

Marek Poledníček – Koalice pro Karlovarský kraj – KKvK (Coalition for Karlovy Vary Region)

Petr Šindelář – ODS (Civic Democratic Party)

Only Jan Horník and Josef Novotný responded to our questions. The first to respond was Czech Senator Jan Horník, who is also a council member of the Karlovy Vary Regional Authority.

“To start with I would like to state the fact that as a Senator for electoral district no. 1 in Karlovy Vary I had an adviser on my team for addressing the Romani issue in my district, which was definitely beneficial to deepening my perspective on this issue,” Horník told us.

Q: The integration of Romani people in the Czech Republic has so far mostly been conceived of as a one-way affair. Very few decision-makers ask Romani people for their opinions. On the other hand, Romani people themselves often are unfamiliar with the opinions of the majority society and with proposals for political solutions to this issue because no one ever consults them. Would you try to change this through supporting the participation of local Romani representatives? If so, how – what would this inclusion look like in practice? Would you seek to have Romani people listened to during joint meetings?

A: Based on my experience, I am not completely convinced that in the Karlovy Vary Region in particular we should put all of our bets on the Romani representatives there, even though I wouldn’t rule it out. The Regional Authority has been in existence for 12 years and has not done or achieved anything essential, from my perspective, in this area. I am an open person and I know how to listen, and I also know that without communicating with Romani people we will never be able to implement their ideas about life in our small region. My answer is unequivocally “yes”.

Q: Would you ever have an outstanding Romani personality as an adviser?

A: No, I would have to find such a person first and he or she would have to function as a “bridge”, which means such a person would primarily have to be considered outstanding by Romani people while knowing how to speak to the majority society as well.

Q: Would you involve more Romani personalities in the design and implementation of integration measures?

A: Unequivocally yes, because Romani people in our region come from various areas, historically speaking, and therefore the model must essentially be not just about integration, but rather about living next to one another without any problems arising.

Q: How would you proceed in addressing the long-term unemployment of people living in socially excluded localities and other poor people, including Romani people living in those localities?

A: I would do my best, in collaboration with people from the excluded localities, to develop a plan for recreating the areas where they live, and then I would do my best to give them work, primarily, work linked to improving their housing situations and the environment around them. Once that kind of model got started, based on our experiences from its first phase, we could continue to shape it according to the experiences and needs of the various groups of citizens in the socially excluded localities.

Q: How would you approach resolving the housing of the very poorest people, including Romani people, living in socially excluded localities?

A: I would seek the way forward through promoting the ideas of our socially deprived fellow citizens as to what solid housing means to them, as long as the ideas are actually feasible, and of housing according to the Romani concept, not according to the ingrained stereotypes of the majority society. I would also give individual socially deprived groups more active room to improve their own housing situations so they could introduce their own ideas about housing into the process, ideas that would be based more on their mentality and suit their lifestyle more. It would make sense to spend European, regional and state financing on projects like that.

Q: Would you like to increase educational achievement among the poorest people, including Romani people living in socially excluded localities? How would you do that?

A: That must start with young children. If regional politicians had seriously concerned themselves with this question 12 years ago, the children who were six years old then would be young 18-year-old citizens today with a completely clear view of their futures, of meaningful lives. They would know what kind of life they want to lead and what they want to do for themselves, for the family they come from, and for the families of their own they want to have some day. I have had the opportunity to see, through a concrete project, that Romani children are no different from any others – there is just a need to support their capacities as individuals. The majority part of society does not want to see those capacities and doesn’t even look for them in Romani people. That will be the way forward. There is a need to change the perception of Romani people in our region, as unfortunately it has not changed much since the pre-1989 era, for the most part. The future and the greatness of this society lies in the children, and it doesn’t matter what nationality they are or what skin color they have.

Q: How would you like to achieve a better, calmer coexistence between majority-society people and minorities, primarily the Romani minority?

A: I have basically answered this question by answering the ones preceding it. Genius lies in simplicity. There is no need to seek complicated solutions, just the need to start to do something meaningful, because that is the only way to prevent the situations we can actually see unfolding now in the north of Bohemia.