Leadership of "Mayors and Independents" party distances itself from mayor's racism but he remains their candidate, Czech Govt Human Rights Commissioner condemns his remarks
The leadership of the “Mayors and Independents” (STAN) party in the Czech Republic has distanced itself from the remarks made by Mayor of Poděbrady Jaroslav Červinka, who is affiliated with them and who recounted a story at a recent local assembly meeting of having wanted to see aRomani person shot. The leadership of STAN has accepted the mayor’s subsequent apology and it is now considered a “closed matter” by them.
Červinka remains on the candidate list for the upcoming local elections and the party is saying the voters should assess the job that he has done on that occasion. “That remark by Mayor Červinka is absolutely unacceptable. Mr Červinka regrets his statement and has already apologized publicly for it. I believe that nothing of the sort will ever recur. I consider this entire matter closed. His work for the last four years in the town will be assessed by the voters,” Ondřej Lochman, vice-chair of the Central Bohemian cell of STAN, told the daily Deník N.
During a recent local assembly meeting, Červinka told the story of an accident that he alleged happened in 2001, claiming that police had not wanted to deal with it because it had been caused by dogs allegedly owned by a Romani man. “I may be one of just a few mayors, or the only mayor, to have been officially reprimanded long ago by the head of the district office for being a racist. I decidedly do not support inadaptables and that reprimand back then was pretty much just a big joke, because I did what I did in front of a member of the Police of the Czech Republic when a traffic accident was being dealt with that had been caused by dogs owned by one of our Romani fellow-citizens. I showed up, identified the owner, and the police backed away, saying they did not want to address it because a Romani man was involved, and I then said my memorable sentence that it would be better to shoot them. The cop told me that they should not be shot, that the dogs could not help themselves, and I said I didn’t mean it was the dogs who should be shot. That was a Friday afternoon. On Monday I was at the police station making a statement about my tendencies to racism and wanting to shoot our fellow-citizens, but that’s not absolutely how it was, it was that I wanted it solved, I don’t want to have to put up with such things. Clutter, dirt,” the mayor said during the local assembly meeting.
The official video recording of the local assembly meeting is mysteriously without any audio during the part where the mayor is telling his story. However, an unedited version of the official video, including audio for that story, has been posted to Twitter.
Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Klára Laurenčíková Šimáčková called the mayor’s remarks unacceptable. “Remarks of this sort are unacceptable. We must take a clear stand against such hateful attitudes. I cannot imagine something of the sort can be heard or read today and on a daily basis by Romani children who want, just like everybody else, to belong to a world where people are not categorized – for example, just because of their skin color – into those who are acceptable and those who are not. Our society needs to develop the healthy values of respect and solidarity, not continue disintegrating,” she said.
The mayor recalled the story while responding to input from local residents complaining of poor coexistence with a Romani family. Červinka, in an interview for Deník N, apologized and later posted an apology to Facebook.
