Stanislav Daniel: What about a Romani President of the Czech Republic?

From a short-term perspective, it’s time because the local and Senate elections have just ended. The results revealed many things to us about the state of politics.

From the long-term perspective, this question is simply appropriate because this is the year 2022. [The Czech presidential elections will be in January 2023 – Translator’s Note]

We can discuss possible Romani candidates right now. What about Martin Mata, the director of the Center for Innovation in the Ústecký Region, nominated for the Manager of the Year 2022 award?

What about the brilliant Czech Television reporter Richard Samko? On the left side of the political spectrum, the former director of the Agency for Social Inclusion, David Beňák, could offer his experience.

Let us not forget possible female Romani candidates. Monika Mihaličková, who was in Parliament 20 years ago, immediately comes to mind.

Naturally we can also discuss women who have been successful abroad and whom we need to remind people back home about a bit. Jamen Gabriela Hrabaňová, for example, has spent the last few years in Brussels directing the Europe-wide network of pro-Romani and Romani organizations, the European Roma Grassroots Organizations Network.

If we want to go a bit further, a brilliant candidate could be David Tišer, the actor, director and famous activist. Here we run into the question of what becomes more than the electorate can swallow.

Progress for Roma, but not much

Tišer is an activist for the rights of gays, lesbians and other members of the LGBTI community, and that just might be too much for Czech society right now. We probably couldn’t find enough liberals in the Czech lands to support such a candidate.

It could even be a similar story when it comes to women. Is Czech society able to elect a Romani community member who is also a woman as president?

Could Czech society manage to deal with not one but two characteristics that are disadvantaging? Let’s reflect on other women’s successes in this area.

Yes, Slovakia has a female president, one who is independent, strong, and successful. Would Americans have elected Obama if he hadn’t been a graduate of Harvard Law School?

Coming back to the Czech Republic, would Romani people have succeeded in various talent competitions here if they hadn’t been the “clean and decent ones”? Another argument could be Finish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, a woman who is the daughter of two mothers.

That’s probably just Finland, though. Whether we Roma go for this in a big way or cultivate the ground slowly, it is high time to talk about a Romani president of the Czech Republic.

Any result of such an endeavor would be meaningful, and we Roma would move a bit further forward in terms of representation. As Václav Havel said: “Hope is not the belief that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something has meaning – no matter how it turns out.“

Letná 1989 redux

Since we’re reviewing recent history, I cannot help but remember 25 November 1989 – the speech made by Romani community member Emil Ščuka on the Letná Plain that day still gives me goosebumps. These days the Czech public frequently confuses their freedom with the opportunity to speak about Romani people in racist terms.

What is even more surprising is that when Ščuka spoke in 1989 about patriots of Romani origin and his dream that “your children and ours will be like brothers and sisters”, he was applauded by those people who were newly enjoying their freedom. Today, though, we speak about Romani people too frequently in the contexts of inclusion, job creation, or projects.

What has been lost is what is civic, what is human, and maybe even, in the spirit of Ščuka’s 1989 speech, what is patriotic. Romani people in the Czech Republic actually are not “here under contract like foreign laborers. We want to live here and we want to live in such a way that we do not have to be ashamed and you all do not have to be ashamed for us.”

So, Romale, shall we give it a try?