Eastern Europe agonises over Roma problem

According to the results of police investigations, the killing spree in Bratislava in which among others a Roma family of five was killed was also motivated by racism. The business paper Hospodářské noviny paints a dark picture of the situation of the Roma in Central and Eastern Europe: "In the Czech Republic there are more than 300 'marginalised' Roma settlements. Hungary's police have been very slow in their investigations of cases of murder of Roma in recent years. Every government in Bratislava has tried to somehow solve the Roma problem. But they have been as unsuccessful in finding a solution as their counterparts in Hungary or the Czech Republic. ... Relations between the Roma and the majority population are especially complicated. In Hungary Jobbik became the third-strongest party in the country, wining almost 17 percent of the vote with unabashed anti-Roma and anti-Semitic rhetoric. We must talk about the Roma problem and call things by their right names. And we must not leave this debate to the Jobbik people and similar groups in other Central European countries."

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