Czech local politician tries to redefine his racist remarks as meaning something else
Jaromír Hůla ("Freedom and Direct Democracy" - SPD), a local assembly member in the city of Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic, has begun claiming his recent remarks during a session of the local assembly at the end of July about "black mugs" on the metro in Paris was not meant in a racist way. According to him, what he said was a reference to passengers who take public transport without paying.
Hůla gives this explanation in a Facebook post in which he also apologizes to members of the Senegalese community in Paris whom he described as being public transport passengers there. He made his remarks in the context of the discussion on cancelling a direct line of public transportation from the city center in Ústí nad Labem to the excluded locality of the Mojžíř housing estate, where most residents are Romani, which means passengers must now take an additional bus that allows them to enter through the front door only so as to better ensure everybody has paid.
The city, which is the center of the Ústecký Region, is governed by the Association of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) together with the SPD and two independent local assembly members. Hůla has now completely reversed his previous statement on Friday, when he apologized contritely, said his remark “slipped out” and made the excuse that he is under stress because he is waiting to have his gallbladder removed.
“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,” news server Denik.cz quoted him as saying.
During the local assembly session in late July, Hůla disagreed with the creation of an additional position in the local public transport system and with using the name “transportation assistant” for the post. “I’ve been working in transportation for 47 years, and I really don’t get why we’re introducing yet another job, this time of transportation assistant. Why doesn’t the conductor do this? 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,” he told the open session.
The local opposition movement “FOR! Ústí” (PRO! Ústí) objected to his remarks. “I must say I am shocked to hear a member of this assembly, Mr. Ing. Hůla, use the expressions which he has just used,” said Karolína Žákovská (PRO! Ústí).
Žákovská added that racist remarks have no place whatsoever in either a city assembly meeting or respectable society. Hůla, in a Facebook post published after the media reported what he had said, claimed to be offended that Romani people were objecting to those remarks.
“I made an unfortunate remark about passengers who ride public transport without paying, some conductors refer to such passengers as ‘black passengers/black mugs’. When speaking about such persons, I unfortunately used that term to identify them without putting scare quotes around it. I didn’t mean anything bad by it, it was not intended as racist, but I nevertheless apologize to all the Senegalese about whom I was speaking,” Hůla posted.
“If anybody interprets my remark differently, he is deeply mistaken, what I said was not about race, but about passengers riding without tickets. I apologize for using that expression and I believe this statement is enough to make the entire situation understandable,” his Facebook post ends.
