Czech vice-mayor not planning to resign, says she will apologize for racist remarks, then keeps on making them in more interviews

Pataky said she does not intend to resign from her vice-mayor post. “I am planning to apologize, because it was really unfortunate. I never meant to hurt anybody,” Pataky said in an interview for iROZHLAS.cz.

Her insistence that the “mentality of Romani people is preserved in a certain way” persists in these new interviews, however. “I think every nation, every minority, every society, every community has something encoded in it and does its best to conserve it somehow, to cultivate it. Now the question is how much room another society gives them to present their stuff and communicate and find the right way forward,” she said.

When asked what she specifically meant by saying Romani people have “absolutely different equipment, genetically speaking”, she replied: “That was an unfortunate turn of phrase. I have no explanation for it. I’m awfully sorry.”

She also made similar remarks in an interview for Seznam Zprávy: “Romani people are different, however we want to explain it. Their mentality is totally different, and I am not comparing it in a derogatory sense of the word. If you look at the Hungarians, the Poles, the French, we each have some kind of history, we have some sort of culture, and naturally that’s what we all base our behavior on. We protect some things and we don’t want to give them up because they suit us somehow. It wasn’t meant derogatorily, though.”

Pataky also said that some of her remarks were allegedly misunderstood or formulated unfortunately. “I spoke with the reporter online, some of her questions put me in rather unpleasant situations. Maybe you noticed the point in the article where I said, approximately halfway through, that I found the interview to be annoying and boring. As I say, not everything we spoke about is there. The reporter did not mention many things,” she explained.

However, according to the author of the interview for news server Okraj.cz, Simona Janíková, the politician had an opportunity to see the final version of the interview several days before it was published. When asked whether her remarks about Romani people can be substantiated by scientific studies or data, Pataky said they could not.

“I’m not basing this on any studies or surveys because I do not consider Romani children to be different from our other pupils,” Pataky told Seznam Zprávy. Although she acknowledges that her formulations may have been problematic, she does not intend to resign.

“I see no reason [to resign]. I actually am doing my best in collaboration with nonprofit organizations, the social welfare departments and the schools to find a way for everybody to have equal access,” Pataky told news server iROZHLAS.cz.

“Any of us can fumble somehow, and I’m willing to admit my mistake. I do not intend to resign because there actually will not be any reasons which might be on the border of criminal prosecution, for instance,” she told Seznam Zprávy​.

The vice-mayor confirmed that she is planning to apologize. “I intend to apologize to all involved or to whomever was hurt and to appropriately explain what I meant,“ she told iROZHLAS.cz.

“On Monday we will have a meeting where apparently I will issue a press release with an apology. I will have to discuss it with the leadership because it shouldn’t reflect on the leadership of the municipal department, it’s actually my statement,” she clarified for Seznam Zprávy and emphasized that her remarks were not meant to be derogatory: “I’m desperate over this, I’m sad, I didn’t want to disgrace anybody.”

Her apologies and attempts at an explanation are not ameliorating the wave of criticism. Experts and Romani organizations are continuing to point to the danger of the generalizations and stereotypes contained in her remarks.

While the vice-mayor claims to have long collaborated with the Romani community, critics say her words are contributing to keeping prejudices and tensions alive in society​​.