News

Czech MPs fail to choose new ombud in first round, second vote tomorrow

Prague, 13.2.2014 21:38, (ROMEA) Czech MPs failed to elect a new Public Defender of Rights (ombud) today. Neither the current Deputy Public Defender of Rights, Stanislav Křeček, nor the former Deputy Public Defender of Rights, Anna Šabatová, has received enough votes during today's first round of secret voting.  full story

Czech Deputy Ombud advises new govt of problems

Prague, 13.2.2014 21:14, (ROMEA) The current Czech Deputy Ombud has congratulated the ministers in the new cabinet on their appointments to office and has warned each of them about several problems which he considers in need of urgent resolution. Most of his remarks were addressed to the Labor and Social Affairs Minister, as traditionally most of the people who contact the Ombud do so about labor and social problems and the office has conducted the most investigations in areas under that ministry's purview.  full story

Neo-Nazis commemorate Dresden in Czech Republic and Germany this year

13.2.2014 19:01, (ROMEA) After marching through Dresden yesterday, German neo-Nazis have canceled a second march planned for today which was supposed to commemorate the destruction of the city at the end of the Second World War on the actual anniversary of the bombing. A police spokesperson confirmed the news reported by a local daily, Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten (DNN).  full story

Czech NGO files complaint against paper over racist article

Prague, 13.2.2014 17:51, (ROMEA) The Prostějovský Večerník ("Prostějov Evening News") daily paper has once again had a complaint filed against it over a racist article. As with the previous case, the complaint was filed by the NESEHNUTÍ nongovernmental organization, which believes that an article headlined "GYPSY HYENAS rob woman of crutches!" violates the law.  full story

Czech and German neo-Nazis to commemorate bombing of Dresden in Karlovy Vary this year

Karlovy Vary, 12.2.2014 21:40, (ROMEA) Nationalists from both the Czech Republic and Germany are using the Internet to convene an assembly in the Czech town of Karlovy Vary on the anniversary of the Allied bombing of Dresden in 1945. The event, allegedly a memorial march called "Light for Dresden", will take place this Saturday.  full story

Czech Republic: Homeless man's tent set on fire

Prague, 12.2.2014 21:00, (ROMEA) A homeless man living in a tent near the Černý Most shopping center in Prague has become the victim of an arson attack by two perpetrators who remain at large. All of the evidence so far indicates that the perpetrators poured a flammable liquid on the man's tent, made of fabric, at 2 PM Sunday and then struck a match.  full story

Czech arson trial: Drunken stupidity or racially-motivated attempted murder?

České Budějovice, 12.2.2014 20:38, (ROMEA) On Monday the trial of a case of attempted arson committed last summer in the town of České Budějovice continued, with few representatives of the media in attendance. News server Romea.cz reported on the start of the trial in December last year.  full story

Romanian President fined for racist remarks about Roma

Bucharest, Romania, 12.2.2014 17:58, (ROMEA) Romanian President Traian Basescu must pay a fine in the amount of 600 Romanian new leu (approximately EUR 134) for making offensive remarks about Romani people during a state visit to Slovenia in 2010. Basescu said at the time that "very many Roma don't want to work" and that "many of them traditionally make their living through thievery".  full story

Russian MP makes excuses for racist photo montage of the Obamas

Russia, 11.2.2014 18:43, (ROMEA) Irina Rodnina, once a famous figure skater, is now an MP for a pro-Putin party in Russia. Recently she was given the honor of lighting the Olympic flame in Sochi together with former hockey player Vladislav Tretiak.  full story

Czech Govt to fight antigypsyism and anti-Semitism, beef up ombud and social housing

Prague, 11.2.2014 17:47, (ROMEA) Addressing social housing, fighting marginalization and a robust performance against antigypsyism and intolerance are all promised in the Czech Government's draft program declaration. The cabinet also wants to get a handle on the "trafficking in poverty at overpriced residential hotels."  full story

Hungarian Jews may boycott government Holocaust commemoration

Budapest, Hungary, 10.2.2014 19:11, (ROMEA) The Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (FHJC) will not be attending this year's official Holocaust commemoration unless the role played by Hungarians in the deportation and murder of Hungarian Jews is more clearly described during the event. The group, which is the main Jewish organization in Hungary, voted on the decision today.  full story

Romanian defenders of Roma: French President inciting racism

France, 10.2.2014 18:36, (ROMEA) One of the main organizations defending the rights of Roma people in Romania has charged French President François Hollande with inciting racism. Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports the group is responding to a recent attack against Roma in Paris.  full story

Czech Republic: Young adults inherit debt from day one

Most, 10.2.2014 17:39, (ROMEA) News server Peníze.cz has published an interview with Alena Zieglerová, who worked for many years as the head of the Labor Office in the Czech town of Most. She knows the Chanov housing estate, which has a large Romani population, and the problems of people "on the margins" of society firsthand.  full story

Russian MP who racially insulted US President lights the Olympic flame

Sochi, Russia, 8.2.2014 23:07, (ROMEA) Irina Rodnina, a Russian MP and former Olympic figure skating champion who lit the Olympic flame yesterday together with legendary former hockey goalie Vladislav Tretiak, is also known for having published a racist photograph of US President Barack Obama last September. Rodnina used Twitter to send out a photo montage of Obama and his wife Michelle looking at a banana.  full story

Italy: Jewish institutions in Rome receive pigs' heads by mail

Rome, Italy, 8.2.2014 21:24, (ROMEA) Several days prior to International Holocaust Remembrance day on 27 January, Jewish addresses in Rome were targeted with an insult. The Italian media reported that three Jewish institutions received packages by mail with pigs' heads in them; anti-Jewish graffiti turned up in several places in Rome as well.  full story

France refuses return to deported Romani girl, she threatens suicide

Paris/Prishtina, 7.2.2014 20:04, (ROMEA) A French court has refused to grant a residence permit to the parents of Leonarda Dibrani, a Romani girl from Kosovo who was deported from France last year under scandalous circumstances. Wire services reported at the end of January that the teenager has responded to the court's decision by threatening to commit suicide.  full story

Slovakia: Growing support for Fascists puts the legislature in reach

Bratislava, Slovakia, 7.2.2014 19:27, (ROMEA) A public opinion surveyby the MVK agency in Slovakia finds that the popularity of the ultra-right People's Party - Our Slovakia (Lidová strana - Naše Slovensko, or LS-NS) has grown to such an extent that the party, led by right-wing extremist Marian Kotleba, could be seated in the legislature if elections were held today. Last fall Kotleba surprised the country by winning direct elections to become the governor of the Banská Bystrica Region.  full story

Czech town uses EU funds for police assistant to restrain unruly pupils in the schools

Sokolov, 7.2.2014 17:26, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that in the Czech town of Sokolov a new reinforcement to the municipal police has begun addressing truancy with troubled families and will even be sitting as an observer next week in classrooms where instruction is disrupted by undisciplined pupils. The police assistant mission is being started at the Primary School on Křižíkova Street, where most of the children (approximately 40) from a recently closed, so-called Romani primary school were reassigned a year and half ago.  full story

German authorities reject award-winning Bosnian Romani man's asylum request

Berlin, Germany, 7.2.2014 0:32, (ROMEA) Nazif Mujić, a Romani man from Bosnia, was the star of last year's Berlinale film festival, winning the Silver Bear for Best Actor for his performance in the docudrama "An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker". As of the end of last month, he and his family were living in a residential hotel for refugees on the outskirts of Berlin and waiting to learn whether they would have to leave Germany against their will.  full story

Czech Police looking for man who gave the Nazi salute in the Prague metro

Prague, 7.2.2014 0:00, (ROMEA) Police officers from a local station in the Vysočany quarter of Prague and detectives investigating extremism are working on the case of an aggressor who verbally assaulted his fellow passengers on the metro before giving the Nazi salute at the Kolbenova metro station. On Monday, 27 January at about 11:30 AM, the man reportedly shouted racial epithets at a tourist from France while riding in a metro car between the Vysočanská and Kolbenova stops.  full story