Emil Voráč: I distance myself from Romani supporters of xenophobic politicians in the Czech Republic

We Roma are a minority in this state. For the time being there is no authorized body, no representative able to speak on behalf of our ethnic group here and to present itself as our highest authority or to give auspices to us in its name.

We are human beings and, like any other nation, we do not all share the same opinions, we do not behave identically to one another, and in politics we are able to stand for different directions and ideologies. Each of us can hold an absolutely different perspective on life and honor different values. 

That said, I believe we Roma should be connected to each other by our culture, our history and our traditions. Facebook and its various instruments, however, have now deprived us of even some of the last values we might have held in common. 

Social media, unfortunately, very often make it possible for individuals to stand out – frequently these are people who are no longer in touch with reality, but through their bluntness they manage to attract the attention of their peers, and that can be a great misfortune. We have now lived to see something that we never anticipated here.  

Some Roma here actually adore those who decided to annihilate our nation, the ethnic Roma, once and for all during the Second World War. They adore those who wanted to erase us from the world, just like they wanted to erase the Jewish nation. 

There are those among us who shake hands with neo-Nazis, with those who belittle the Romani suffering during the Second World War, who cast doubt on the Holocaust and its Romani victims, and who have been and are still disseminating hatred against us. They shake hands with those who promote hate with the aim of acquiring unlimited power such that Romani people in this state would gradually lose all of our human rights and become outlaws in our own country.  

These people claim to speak in the name of the entire population of Roma in this state and even in Slovakia, but as I said at the beginning, we differ from one another in many ways, and the fact is that the vast majority of us will never support Nazis, that most of us will never forget our forebears, and we will also never forgive the ideology that a certain part of the population follows to this day, and that is Fascism. For many years, with many friends, and quite often even with non-Romani people, we have stood face to face with these adherents of Fascism. 

If I were to write all of their names down here, which I could, it would be a very long list of those with whom I have stood shoulder-to-shoulder. I believe they will agree with this commentary of mine, that they will distance themselves from any association of Romani people with the nationalists, and that they will also distance themselves from any incipient alleged revolution to bring down the current Government. 

If this Government were to step down, it would mean exactly that the adherents of Fascism would take power. By that I mean the “Freedom and Direct Democracy” (SPD) movement, Tricolor, the Association of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) or the “Free Bloc” (Volný blok) and other likeminded groups.

I distance myself from Romani supporters of Nazi politicians, and I distance myself from all such activities where Romani people support xenophobic populists acquiring power. I ask all those who disagree with xenophobic politicians taking power here to share this article.