News server Romea.cz. Everything about Roma in one place

News server Romea.cz. Everything about Roma in one place

KDU-CSL leader Cunek target of Czech billboard campaign

22 October 2012
1 minute read

Billboards satirising Christian Democrat leader Jiri Cunek, a deputy prime minister, have appeared across the country, with his portrait and the text "I am a Christian Democrat, I take no bribes and I like Gypsies."

Like in the previous cases, the organiser is anonymous.

Christian Democrat officials say that the billboards are part of a targeted media campaign against their leader.

Tomas Soukup, commercial director of the firm Outdoor Akcent which owns the advertising space, told CTK that it had been hired by a legal entity for a month whose name could not be disclosed under the contract.

The customer hired some 50 billboards across the Czech Republic, but all of them do not have the same text, the agency said.

The text hints at the suspicion that when he was the mayor of the North Moravian town of Vsetin, Cunek accepted a half-a-million bribe from a real estate company.

The text about Gypsies (Romanies) alludes to Cunek’s decision to evict Romany rent-defaulters to the fringe of Vsetin or outside the town. The move was criticised as racist by some, but it is widely believed to have catapulted him to the post of party leader last year.

Ironic billboards became a part of the political life in the Czech Republic, especially before the elections.

Help us share the news about Romas
Trending now icon