Brno, Czech Republic: Member of Romani family publicly defamed by mayor of the Černovice Municipal Department says he does not understand her remarks to have been racist

Members of Brno’s Romani Council recently called for her resignation as a result. The demand that she resign was also raised during the session by assembly members in the opposition, but the vote taken on the matter did not go their way.

Quittová publicly apologized during the session for using the phrase “got rid of” when discussing Romani residents relocating away from Černovice. “I apologize for the verb ‘got rid of’. I was responding to a question, I would never have raised the subject on my own. There was a misunderstanding, this is a fight against my person. I will not resign from any political office,” declared Quittová, who is also a lawmaker in the lower house for the “Mayors and Independents” (STAN) movement.

The politician had previously partially apologized for her remarks through news server Romea.cz. Monday’s session was also attended by Roman Kotlár, a member of the Romani family to whom the mayor had referred.

Kotlár stood up for the mayor and declared that he personally does not see anything racist in the remarks that she made. “I did not feel any racism from Madame Mayor,” he told the session.

A member of the Brno Romani Council also expressed support for the mayor. “We learned that Madame Mayor had said something wrong about a family with whom there had been problems in Černovice. The mayor, in my opinion, did not make a racist remark about people of Romani origin. As far as I know, Petra Quittová is not a racist and does not have such an inclination toward any minority,” David Horvátko told news server Denik.cz.

Other members of the Brno Romani Council, however, distanced themselves from his statement. “The Brno Romani Council stands by the statement we published through Romea.cz in mid-April,” Tomáš Śčuka, a member of the Brno Romani Council and of the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs, told news server Romea.cz.

During the March session of the local assembly, the mayor responded to a question from opposition assembly member Jana Přikrylová about monitoring the situation on a street into which a Romani family had recently moved. The mayor stressed in her answer that the house had been sold to the Romani buyers by a private real estate firm and alleged that the family members had criminal records.

“A married couple whom I know personally sold it. They sold it…, yes, to persons, hmm, who are different, I don’t know how to say this now, they’re just Romani people whom we got rid of, several years ago we rid Staré Černovice of them, they moved away to Slavkov u Brna, but those same people then bought the house from our people, whom I know, because they made the highest offer,” the mayor said.

“Those people have committed criminal activity in the past and we have read in the newspapers what they did and who has done time. I actually do not want to say their names specifically here. We know precisely who they are,” Quittová said, adding that none of the newcomers have yet been accused of committing any more crimes or misdemeanors.

“So far we do not have any proceedings opened against them, not even misdemeanor proceedings. For the time being they are…, what I’ll say now is that they’re staying at home. They are not undertaking any activity that could be considered criminal… and the information I have about the children who came with them is that they are not attending our primary school, they attend special school, at least that was the most recent information I received, because they’ve been going to the school in their catchment area,” Quittová said.

“We are also annoyed because we were glad to be rid of them and now they’re back,” Mayor Quittová said to the public session of the Brno-Černovice local assembly. In addition to the Brno Romani Council objecting to the mayor’s remarks, members of the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs also objected to them, as did Michal Miko, the director of RomanoNet, an umbrella organization bringing together pro-Romani and Romani organizations.

Quittová subsequently partially apologized through news server Romea.cz. “I apologize for the unfortunate choice of words, which decidedly were not meant to target the whole Romani community and what has happened, in my opinion, is a misunderstanding, because I was responding to a specific query about a home where a Romani family currently lives. I am decidedly not the kind of person who would take the side of any minority in our republic. One cannot speak of any prejudices toward the Romani community either,” Mayor Quittová told Romea.cz.