Analyses

Czech NGO working with Roma says state is punishing the poor and motivating them through fear

17.2.2017 14:51 From the beginning of February an amendment to the law on aid to those in material distress has been in effect in the Czech Republic. In addition to other matters, the amendment establishes
that the aid provided to those in material distress (the minimum subsistence allowance) shall be reduced by roughly one-third for people who have been unemployed for one year and have not performed at least 20 hours of unremunerated work per month for their local authority's public works department.  full story

Analysis: "Inadaptables get free apartments" - the Czech lie that kills

17.1.2017 11:50 The resistance of the ANO movement, the Christian Democrats, and the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) in the Czech Republic to social housing is based on fabrications that will have tangible consequences: People dying in the streets and broken families. The freezing temperatures falling to -20 C at night now form the backdrop to the coalition Government's tiffs over the planned law on social housing.  full story

Czech Republic: Investigation into Romani man's death continues as interethnic gulf widens

11.1.2017 7:13 Last fall was marked for thousands of Romani people in the Czech Republic by the mysterious, still-unclarified death of a young man, Miroslav Demeter, in a pizzeria in Žatec. During 20 demonstrations and memorial assemblies around the country and abroad, Romani people took to the streets with the aim of expressing their opinion that the case must be properly investigated.  full story

Analysis: What happened to the Czech social housing law?

5.1.2017 10:24 Reporter Saša Uhlová, writing in Deník Referendum, has provided us with a very open description of the state of preparations for the law on social housing in the Czech Republic. A so-called national-level "Social Housing Office" (Úřad pro sociální bydlení) has made it into the law just because local authorities are refusing to administer social housing.  full story

Karel Holomek on the "social unconscious" and the Roma Spirit Awards

18.12.2016 22:04 This year's Roma Spirit Awards had to grapple with a lack of comprehension from an unanticipated party: From Romani people themselves. I have done my best to grasp what has happened and it took me a long time before I understood it.  full story

Analysis: The German parliamentary elections and refugee policy

18.12.2016 17:23 Next year parliamentary and presidential elections will happen in the two most significant Member States of the European Union. While in France the choice of the conservative required two rounds of voting and about four million people ended up choosing the new candidate, the determination of the candidate for the German conservative dual party of the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) was a lightning-fast process.
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Analysis: Czech media spread Islamophobic disinformation about court-ordered removal of Virgin Mary statue in France

16.12.2016 20:41 During the weekend of 4 December, the Czech News Agency published a news item saying that the French municipality of Publier, located on the intersection of the border with both Italy and Switzerland, must remove a statue of the Virgin Mary from public land on the basis of a decision by an administrative court tribunal in Grenoble. What is the reason for this decision?  full story

Analysis of Czech-language Internet finds posts about Roma worse than two years ago - 80 % negative

11.12.2016 20:19 Romani people are discussed in the Czech language online predominantly in terms of stereotypes, and the voice of the Roma themselves in the virtual space is still proportionately weak. Media attention towards Romani people as a minority was overshadowed during 2015 and 2016 by a shift of focus to Muslims and refugees, but the
emotions expressed about the Roma are, at the same time, more negative than they were before.  full story

Czech trial finally reveals what launched anti-Romani demonstrations in 2013

4.12.2016 14:22 Three years ago the Czech Republic experienced an unprecedented phenomenon - for several Saturdays in a row, thousands of citizens in a particular city engaged in street battles with police. The South Bohemian metropolis of České Budějovice had never experienced anything like it.  full story

Analysis: Swiss Parliament approves law on "solidarity aid" to victims of forced sterilization

21.10.2016 17:20 "Solidarity contribution" instead of compensation  full story

Analysis: How extremism has changed over time

11.10.2016 10:17 Times change. During the 1930s, the ruling elites were discussing deporting refugees to Madagascar.  full story

Analysis: Refugee curfew relaxed in German town of Bautzen, opponents of racism assemble undisturbed

22.9.2016 7:54 One week ago the long-term tensions in the town of Bautzen in the German region of Lausitz, located just north of the border with the Czech Republic, escalated. The clash between neo-Nazis, police officers, and a small group of young refugees resulted in the refugees being chased throughout the entire town and was reported on by news server Romea.cz in detail here.  full story

Analysis: The phenomenon of the Alternative for Germany party

21.9.2016 16:20 Last weekend in Germany, the state of Berlin elected new representatives to the state legislature and to local municipal councils. The results of the elections once again demonstrate that the distribution of political forces in the various states is unique in each location.  full story

Analysis: The Czech town of Varnsdorf is cursed by its populists

15.9.2016 12:23 Czech Vice Prime Minister Babiš has concentrated public attention once again on the northern Bohemian town of Varnsdorf, which was the scene of pogrom-like marches on Romani-occupied residential hotels in 2011. This year Babiš has become the king of the Varnsdorf populists, freely continuing the legacy, for example, of Czech MP Ivana Řápková and of local neo-Nazis.  full story

Czech historian responds to tabloid disinformation about Romani Holocaust site

15.9.2016 8:16 The "Gypsy Camp" at Lety by Písek in Bohemia was established on 2 August 1942. It was located on the site of a transit camp that had previously been a disciplinary labor camp.  full story

Analysis: How the Czech media handled the Vice PM's anti-Roma election stunt

11.9.2016 9:44 Why did the Czech Vice Prime Minister visit Varnsdorf?  full story

Analysis from Bulgaria: Anti-Gypsyism is the enemy at the gates

6.9.2016 8:24 How are mobs organized? How do they gather so fast to dispense "justice"?
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Analysis: When the Czech Police contribute to disseminating hatred toward Romani people

1.9.2016 17:38 Whoever publicly incites hatred of a nation, race, ethnic group, religion, class or other group of person, or incites the restriction of the rights and freedoms of the members of such a group, is supposed to be punished in the Czech Republic by up to two years in prison. That is the wording of the Criminal Code (Section 356), which also authorizes the same punishment in cases of rioting or conspiring to commit the offense of incitement to hatred.  full story

Germany recalls last year's violent clashes between police and those opposed to refugees in Heidenau

18.8.2016 18:28 One year ago, Germany was shaken by the violence that played itself out in Heidenau. On the nights of 21, 22 and 23 August 2015, the small Saxon town was awaiting the arrival of hundreds of refugees for whom an accommodation facility had been quickly prepared there.  full story

Analysis: Czech businessman wages disinformation campaign from Dubai to increase appetite for authoritarianism

18.8.2016 9:04 Pro-Russian, conspiratorial, disinformation websites have recently become an established, well-known element of the online Czech media environment. Czech-language social networking sites are also involved in disseminating the uniquely "guaranteed truths" produced by these pro-Russian sites.  full story