Czech journalist František Kostlán calls on Romani voters not to choose Babiš for president

We were some of the very few journalists to describe in detail the behavior of the antigypsyists in the days of those endless anti-Romani demonstrations here. I am now writing to tell you my opinion of Andrej Babiš.

Without our work (mine and that of my colleagues), most of society would never have learned about much of what was happening, because the mainstream media don’t take much interest in it – on the contrary, they frequently attacked Romani people themselves. During the worst anti-Romani campaigns between 2008 and 2013, we were practically the only ones to point out the sympathies or the ties between neo-Nazis and skinheads on the one hand and some politicians (including local ones) on the other.

Babiš is not a friend of Romani people and has never come to their aid. He has made it clear over and over that he hates them; here are some examples:

1. In 2016, as Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister, he said this in Varnsdorf: “There were times when all the Roma did work. What those idiots are writing in the newspapers about the camp at Lety being a concentration camp is a lie, it was a labor camp. Whoever wasn’t working – bam! – he would be sent there.”

Many Romani people, including children, died in that concentration camp during the Nazi Protectorate. Then-PM Bohuslav Sobotka responded to Babiš as follows: “The line between populism and quasi-Nazism is very thin. I am concerned that Babiš has now crossed it with these remarks. This person, who possesses a completely unique concentration of economic, media and political power in our country, has shown that nothing is sacred to him in the hunt for votes.”

Sobotka’s description of Babiš is completely truthful. Babiš did not apologize for his remarks about Lety until he was put under enormous pressure to do so by other politicians, public figures, and the media, when there was practically nothing else he could do.

Babiš later lied and said he never made those remarks – he is a born liar who says what momentarily suits him. Now he is saying that he has nothing against the Roma because he wants your votes, not because it’s true.

During his subsequent visit to the remembrance site at Lety, Babiš even referred to Roma as “parasites”. The Romani Studies scholar Renata Berkyová wrote at the time: “In any event, after the Prime Minister recommended that his Vice Prime Minister go to visit Lety, Babiš did so. However, his visit cannot be described as displaying any kind of sincere reverence for the victims or ‘bowing of his head’ to them. Instead, the Vice PM exploited that visit to the political maximum. In an interview with the press, he did not hesitate to criticize Romani people [from the residential hotel in Varnsdorf he had previously visited] for a second. Speaking at the site of a mass burial ground of Romani Holocaust victims, Babiš described how disgusted he was by the present-day living conditions that he claimed to have seen among Romani people, including bedbugs on the walls of their homes, filth, and parents whom he called ‘parasites’ on their own children. What is there to say?”

2. In 2017, Babiš staged a tour of the Janov housing estate in Litvínov. His guides were then-Senator Jaroslav Doubrava and the director of the Krušnohor housing cooperative, František Ryba – both are famous for making the most repugnant kind of anti-Roma, racist remarks.

Babiš’s choice of these local “informants” prefigured the direction of his references to the local housing situation. Ryba, for example, wanted to have all the Romani tenants moved into a “village for riff-raff” and said he would welcome government by an “enlightened dictator”.

“I listened with great attention. It was confirmed to me, for example, that welfare has to be simplified and just those who actually need it should get it. Naturally, that’s not all…,” Babiš said after the visit.

Babiš shares Ryba’s view of democracy and freedom and would love to become that dictator; he went into politics just to feather his own nest. Agrofert, which Babiš founded, acquired billions of Czech crowns in subsidies during his time in office, and the Government when he was PM perpetually increased the amounts of those subsidies.

3. In 2018, Babiš backed Czech MP Tomio Okamura after he falsely alleged that the concentration camp at Lety was never fenced in and that people had freedom of movement there. Okamura later apologized for saying the camp had not been fenced, but simultaneously further alleged it had not been guarded most of the time and people were able to move about freely inside the camp.

Okamura’s remarks were criticized by the Jewish Community of Prague and the Museum of Romani Culture, which saw them as Holocaust denial. Babiš, on the other hand, stood up for Okamura.

“I watched Mr. Okamura last night on television and he claims his remarks have been misinterpreted. Basically, he denied them and more or less apologized. I wasn’t there when he made the remarks. However, based on how he has commented on it, I believe it’s enough,” Babiš said when asked whether he would support removing Okamura from his position as a vice-chair of the lower house, as the Christian Democrats had proposed; all other political parties except for the ANO movement, chaired by Babiš, condemned Okamura’s remarks.

4. In 2021, Babiš backed the police officers in Teplice and thanked them for intervening against Stanislav Tomáš even though Mr. Tomáš died after their intervention. One of the intervening officers knelt on the neck of the arrested Romani man for several minutes.

According to police, Mr. Tomáš collapsed and died in the ambulance called to the scene. However, bystander video shows him already lying motionless on the sidewalk prior to the ambulance arriving.

5. Of the “15 measures” touted to combat poverty and social exclusion, not a single one has been implemented. Babiš was first Finance Minister and Vice Prime Minister and then became Prime Minister at that time.

I am asking you all not to vote for Babiš. I will be voting for Petr Pavel in the second round of the presidential elections even though many things about him bother me, mainly his activity before November 1989.

This former general is a better choice than Babiš and understands human rights far better than he does. In my eyes, Babiš is an anti-democratic, populist creature.

Paĺikerav, Romale, for listening to me. I hope your families are doing well.