Czech local politician apologizes for his racist remark, his fellow assembly members in the opposition say that's not good enough
Jaromír Hůla ("Freedom and Direct Democracy" - SPD), a local assembly member in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic, has apologized for the remark he made during the 31 July session of the local assembly. Hůla was telling a story about his experience in Paris and used the racist term "black mugs" to refer to Senegalese people.
The assemblyman’s words sparked outrage, mostly among opposition members of the local assembly. Hůla was expressing his views on the subject of how public transportation is staffed and said he disagreed with calling a certain position “transportation assistant” instead of “conductor” in Ústí nad Labem, where recent changes to transportation serving a segregated housing estate where most of the tenants are Romani have been controversial.
“I’ll tell you my experience from Paris. I was saving money, so I booked a cheap hotel, but it was in the Senegalese quarter at the last metro stop. Two police officers and a conductor got on at that metro stop and checked tickets between there and the next stop. They threw off a few black mugs here and there and that solved it,” Hůla told his fellow local assembly members in open session.
His remark was filmed and published online on 1 August by Jana Kočárková Maredová, a local politician for the Pirates, who are in the opposition in Ústí nad Labem. However, the Czech media did not take notice of the racist remark until news server Hlídací pes wrote about it and news server Romea.cz published the video of the local assembly session to social media.
Hůla made his apology on Friday, 11 August when speaking to news server Deník.cz and said it was a slip of the tongue. “That was a fluke, somehow it just slipped out. I’m about to have gallbladder surgery, and at my age, that’s not easy. I didn’t even realize something like that had slipped by me. I’m sure it won’t happen again, but somehow, after my experience, it all makes me angry. I apologize for that statement and I will apologize publicly,“ Hůla is quoted as saying.
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Mayor Petr Nedvědický (Association of Dissatisfied Citizens – ANO) is not thrilled by this situation, but said he considered the parsing of Hůla’s words on social media to have been tendentious. “I believe that he just wanted to communicate that we should not change the name of that position from ‘conductor’ to ‘transportation assistant’. I don’t want to comment on his remarks,” Deník.cz quotes Mayor Nedvědický as downplaying the racist term.
Czech MP Jaroslav Foldyna (SPD) called Hůla’s rhetoric unacceptable, but also said he is an older, unwell person who regrets what he said. “The gentleman is an older person, he’s quite unwell, and he rather regrets what he said. We’re addressing it now. Nobody can speak that way to anybody,” he commented to news server SeznamZprávy.cz.
Vice-Mayor Bohumil Ježek, also SPD, defended Hůla and said he knows him to be an educated, hard-working, cultivated person. “He never speaks in vulgar language, not even in private. I believe this was because of his current state of health and his worries. To a certain degree I understand what he meant after his many years of experience with public transport, but in any event something like that does not belong in the public space,” he said, adding that he did not see any reason why Hůla should resign.
The local opposition, on the other hand, has demanded at least an apology from Hůla and said it considers his words to have been inappropriate and undignified. His fellow local assembly member Richard Loskot (FOR! Ústí – PRO! Ústí) said there should be a code of conduct for local assembly sessions that should be upheld.
Local assembly member Yveta Tomková (Your Ústí – Vaše Ústí) said an assembly member should not use such a vocabulary. The Romano Jasnica association, which provides social services to impoverished locals and to the Romani community in Ústí nad Labem and its environs, also voiced its criticism.
Martin Cichý, director of Romano Jasnica, said similar rhetoric can be heard from the SPD very frequently, as it has based its politics on hate toward ethnic minorities and immigrants. “It’s decidedly not nice. That remark does not surprise me at all. This local assemblyman has mixed up his centuries, we’re in the 21st century now and remarks of that sort have no place in politics, not even local politics,” he said.
According to the chair of the Czechoslovak Romani Union (Československé romské unie), Karel Karika, who is also an assembly member in Ústí nad Labem, Hůla’s remarks were scandalous and point to what Karika said is deep insensitivity and prejudice. “A person like that should never represent any public authority. It is necessary to behave politely and to respect others irrespective of their ethnic origin or social position, and irrespective of one’s own personal health problems or stress,” he said.
“I call on assemblyman Hůla to immediately resign. His behavior is completely unacceptable and cannot be tolerated,” Karika said.
