Jarmila Balážová: Czech party distancing itself from mayor's racist remarks without removing him as a candidate is an empty gesture
The attitude of the leadership of the “Mayors and Independents” (STAN) party in the Czech Republic toward the racist remarks made by the Mayor of Poděbrady Jaroslav Červinka have disappointed many Romani men and women, such as journalist Jarmila Balážová, who posted to Facebook that without removing the mayor from the candidate list for the upcoming local elections, the party distancing itself is just an empty gesture. Červinka recounted a story from 2001 during a local assembly meeting held at the close of June in which he said he had wanted a Romani man to be shot.
“I am disappointed (although not surprised) by the attitude of the leading representatives of STAN. By distancing themselves from the remarks by the Mayor of Poděbrady about shooting people (Romani ones) they consider the matter to be closed,” Balážová said.
“He will not be removed as their candidate, he won’t even be moved further down the list, which would send a clear signal to both their members and the voters. What, basically, has the leadership of STAN done?” she asked.
“They have done almost nothing. Distancing themselves during the Czech Republic’s presidency of the European Union is the very least one can expect in a civilized country, after all,” the journalist noted.
“Coming from the party whose chair is also the Interior Minister, isn’t this essentially an empty gesture that costs them nothing?” Balážová asked. Červinka used a recent local assembly meeting to recount the story of an accident that he alleged happened in 2001, claiming that police had not wanted to deal with it because it had been caused by dogs allegedly owned by a Romani man.
“I may be one of just a few mayors, or the only mayor, to have been officially reprimanded long ago by the head of the district office for being a racist. I decidedly do not support inadaptables and that reprimand back then was pretty much just a big joke, because I did what I did in front of a member of the Police of the Czech Republic when a traffic accident was being dealt with that had been caused by dogs owned by one of our Romani fellow-citizens,” the mayor alleged.
“I showed up, identified the owner, and the police backed away, saying they did not want to address it because a Romani man was involved, and I then said my memorable sentence that it would be better to shoot them. The cop told me that they should not be shot, that the dogs could not help themselves, and I said I didn’t mean it was the dogs who should be shot,” the mayor can be heard to say in an audio recording of the meeting.
“That was a Friday afternoon. On Monday I was at the police station making a statement about my tendencies to racism and wanting to shoot our fellow-citizens, but that’s not absolutely how it was, it was that I wanted it solved, I don’t want to have to put up with such things,” said the mayor.
“Clutter, dirt,” the mayor closed his digression during the local assembly meeting, according to the recording. The leadership of STAN distanced itself from his remarks, accepted the apology made by the mayor, and continues to consider the matter closed.
Červinka will not be withdrawn from the candidate list for the local elections and the voters will assess the job he has done at that time. Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Klára Laurenčíková Šimáčková called the mayor’s remarks unacceptable.
The mayor recalled the story while responding to input from local residents complaining of poor coexistence with a Romani family. In an interview for Deník N, he apologized and later posted an apology to Facebook.
