Czech public figures call on democratic political parties to publicly distance themselves from racist election campaign tactics
A group of public figures and minority representatives in the Czech Republic has called on the country's democratic parties to publicly distance themselves from political marketing that sparks hatred in society. Their call is a reaction to the election campaign of the "Freedom and Direct Democracy" (SPD) movement together with the PRO and Tricolor parties, specifically the ad featuring an image of two Romani boys smoking cigarettes.
“This is open racism, the denigration of human dignity, and all involving the unacceptable exploitation of children in an election campaign,” reads the call, which theater director Břetislav Rychlík provided to the Czech News Agency (ČTK). The call has been supported by the director of the Museum of Romani Culture, Jana Horváthová, musician Iva Bittová, the auxiliary Bishop of Prague and signatory of Charter 77 Václav Malý, cleric and educator Tomáš Halík, former politician Petr Pithart, and the director of the ROMEA organization, Zdeněk Ryšavý.
“We are calling on the democratic political parties to publicly distance themselves from this method of political marketing and from sparking hatred in society,” reads the document, which Rychlík said would be delivered today to the chairs of all the parties currently in government as well as to the Association of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) movement, the Greens (Zelení), SOCDEM and the Oath (Přísaha) party. The ad used artificial intelligence to generate the image of the boys smoking cigarettes.
That image is accompanied by speech bubbles reading: “They say we should go to school, but our folks couldn’t care less”, and a proclamation that only families whose children attend school deserve welfare. “This is meant to give the impression that only Romani people don’t send their children to school and that their children buy cigarettes with welfare money,” the call explains.
Scapegoating an entire group on the basis of their ethnic origin is dangerous and repugnant, according to the call. The ROMEA organization, Romani community member Cyril Koky (the Central Bohemian Regional Coordinator for Minorities), and others filed a report of a crime against the SPD, its chair, Tomio Okamura, the PRO and Tricolor parties and their marketers last week over the poster with the Romani boys in particular.
According to those who reported this crime, the ad is racist, spreading hatred against the Romani minority and defaming its members. Czech Police had already begun criminal proceedings over another SPD ad featuring a dark-skinned man wielding a knife.
Constitutional complaints have also been filed in relation to the ad campaign. Last week Okamura told ČTK he believes the filing of these reports of a crime confirms that the SPD has “hit the nail on the head” with its election campaign.
The SPD chair called the depictions used in the ads “allegories”. He also said the SPD is just describing the state of society and that those reporting the ads as crimes are getting “as angry as paper devils” instead of addressing the situations to which the ads refer.
A call to democratic parties to reject racist speech during election campaigns
The coalition of three parties led by the SPD of Tomio Okamura is spreading an advertisement as part of their election campaign that features two little Romani boys with cigarettes in their mouths and a speech bubble that reads: “They say we should go to school, but our folks couldn’t care less.” The ad also includes a promise to the voters: “Only those families whose children attend school deserve welfare.” This is meant to give the impression that only Romani people don’t send their children to school and that their children buy cigarettes with welfare money
The Office of the Public Defender of Rights is referring to Equinet, the European Network of Equality Bodies, which brings together 48 equality bodies from 36 countries around Europe, including all EU Member States. Equinet is observing with concern the reports of a rising number of election campaigns in Europe which involve groundlessly scapegoating groups or their individual members, using discriminatory language or hate speech against certain groups in society […] committing discrimination, harassment and hateful ideology, speech or written texts in election campaigns based on the ideas or the theories of the unchanging superiority of one group of people because of their personal characteristics, campaigns which are directly, essentially at odds with democratic principles and which are able to undermine the fundamental values of democratic states and our common constitutional traditions.
In the 21st century, scapegoating an entire group on the basis of their ethnic origin is dangerous and repugnant! This is open racism, the denigration of human dignity, and all involving the unacceptable exploitation of children in an election campaign.
We are calling on the democratic political parties to publicly distance themselves from this method of political marketing and from sparking hatred in society. They should compete through electoral programs based on the clash of ideas and values, not ones contravening democratic traditions and, in principle, also contravening the preamble to the Constitution of the Czech Republic, which declares that we are a country of free and equal citizens.
