Peter Pollák: When four young children die, the world should stop - instead, it sent messages of hatred
Ever since the tragedy in Veľký Šariš, Slovakia, I have been receiving hateful messages on a daily basis through Facebook. The messengers attack me, my family, my wife, my children.
These messengers are even attacking the poor children from Veľký Šariš who are no longer with us. They are attacking children who deserve compassion and prayer, not curses and mockery.
Some of them are unafraid to write that those children “deserved” to die. Others write that they hope other children in other settlements die next.
This is happening just because we Roma had the audacity to stand up and say: “Enough!” We bravely held a protest for those innocent children.
Do you know what the worst thing is? Many of those who are spreading this hatred are presenting themselves as Christians.
They have crosses on their Facebook profiles, Bible quotes, images of angels, and at the same time they disseminate hatred as if it were prayer. This is not Christianity, though.
This is disguised fascism. These people attack the Roma while defending Robert Fico like fanatics.
These people claim we Roma are all on welfare, that we do not work and do not pay taxes. That’s a lie.
The truth is that many Romani people in Slovakia are working. It is also true that almost no construction site in either the Czech Republic or Slovakia can get by without Romani hands, including the hands of those from the settlements of eastern Slovakia.
Yes, some of those Roma work “under the table”. However, that is not their fault.
That is the fault of the entrepreneurs who are steamrolling along and employing the Roma without contracts so they don’t have to pay their health insurance, payroll taxes, and social security deposits. Therefore, it’s not the Roma who don’t want to pay taxes, it’s the entrepreneurs who consciously avoid following the law and who exploit the Roma.
Many of the Facebook profiles spreading this hate are fake – they have no names, no photos, just a picture of a cat, or a dog, or a horse. These people are hiding.
These Facebook users know that what they are doing is cowardly and repugnant. I have another remark to make about this as well that may seem unforgivable to some people: If a similar tragedy had happened to children from a different part of society, instead of to Romani children, then the entire political representation of Slovakia would have been at the scene of such unhappiness that same day.
Ministers, politicians, and the prime minister would have been competing with each other over who could show the most sympathy. I do not wish this on any child, but the truth is that when four Romani children burned to death, neither Fico nor his ministers went to the scene.
That is because this Government has no respect for Romani children. If it did, they would have been there.
They would have been there that same day. None of them have gone there yet.
We must not allow ourselves to be cowed by those who spread hatred. We must not allow ourselves to be intimidated by racist threats.
Once we start fearing these people, they will never stop. The truth is they won’t stop anyway.
At least we will know that we are standing up for what is right. We are not doing anything wrong.
We just want Romani children to have a future. We want the lives of Romani children to have the same value as anybody else’s.
Peter Pollák is a politician of Romani origin in Slovakia who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2019-2024.
