ROMEA.CZ

For some time now news server Romea.cz has observed that in several localities throughout the Czech Republic some Romani people, adolescents or young men in particular, have been radicalizing. Footage taken of the anti-Romani demonstrations earlier this year in České Budějovice shows us that the possibility of being filmed, either with a mobile device or video cameras, did not deter some Roma from responding to racist provocations there with violence.

Activists and Romani people have given news server Romea.cz more than one reason as to why Romani people are losing patience now:  Not only the rising intensity and number of neo-Nazi marches in the country, but the fact that more and more ordinary people are joining the right-wing extremists. Another factor is that towns where anti-Romani demonstrations take place often respond in their aftermath by heightening their repression of Romani people, even directly introducing so-called "zero tolerance" policies that target them. 

Sometimes municipal or regional politicians publicly insist that the Romani people themselves, not the racism of those attacking them, is to blame for all the attempted pogroms we have seen this year. Daily humiliations such as being subjected to racist insults are also contributing to the radicalization of Romani youth.