A group of local Slovak politicians who wear cowboy hats and call themselves the magnificent seven are campaigning on a promise to solve crime and clean up the area by putting gypsies on flights to the rest of Europe, and sterilising those that remain.

Vladimir Guertler, 41, who is head of the Magnificent Seven Party that promises to restore law and order by getting rid of the gypsies with one-way tickets abroad, has backed up his plan with TV spots interviewing gypsies admitting they would welcome the chance of a free ticket out of the country.
Those that remain, he said, would be eligible for free sterilisation operations for which they would get incentives, including the advantage that with fewer children they would have more money for other things.

Before the region split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993, Czechoslovakia routinely sterilised Roma women to curb the birthrate of people regarded as „undesirables“ but it was thought to have ceased after the 1989 Velvet Revolution. It was later found out however that doctors had continued the practice not just for months but for years.And now the subject has been raised again in Slovakia together with the idea of encouraging Roma to go to other places in Europe with free one-way tickets. The „7 statocnych“ party, which means the magnificent seven, is campaigning in the city of Kosice in the impoverished east of Slovakia, a region split by ethnic tension.

Guertler, who is a lawyer, has already put up posters promising the sterilisations and the tickets if he is elected to the local council in the upcoming elections on November 15. And he has rejected critics who called his campaign „amoral“ and „racist“. He said: „My campaign is deeply moral and there are no marks of racism. It is human to Romas and also to major population of Slovakia. „All points of my election program are based on my knowledge of the situation following several visits to the borough of Lunik IX in Kosice and discussions with its residents.“

Guertler claimed his plan of free flight tickets would be viable, saying: „Free movement of persons in EU countries is guaranteed. And every European citizen has right to live, work, study or to run business there.“ He said the Roma he had spoken to did not say which country they would want to go to but that the UK would for sure be one of those offered. And with regards to the sterilisation he said: „Roma women who live in poverty don’t have the possibilities to protect themselves and to control the number of children they have, what with a lack of money for contraception and generally their partners’ unwillingness to use it. „My plan is to financially support women of a certain age with a certain number of children who decide to undergo the sterilisation voluntarily. The financial support would give a better life for her and for her children.“

Posters stuck up around the city show him wearing a white shirt and white western hat and repeat his claims made in local newspapers and on television of flights and sterilisations for Roma. The billboards contain sentences as „Lunik IX to Brussels. Flight tickets for free“ or „Voluntary sterilisation for Roma women“. Lunik IX is a borough in the city of Kosice which houses Slovakia’s largest Romani community. Although originally built for 2500 inhabitants, there are now at least three times that number living there. Most basic amenities have been cut off because of the failure of those using them to pay. Guertler wrote on the website of the political party: „I have spoken to Romas from Lunik IX about the possibility of leaving Slovakia. That’s why I want free flight tickets for them.“ The candidate made a short video in the borough and asked Romas if they would like to leave Slovakia. One of the Lunik IX residents Jozef Conka, 39, said: „Yes, I would like to leave right now.“ Guertler offered to organise a public money collection for the flight or bus ticket for Conka. Another resident of Lunik IX Miroslav Horvath, 26, was not very impressed by Vladimir Guertler’s plan. He said: „You care about those who want to leave. But what about people who want to stay here? Why don’t you try to solve the problem with housing here.“

Meanwhile local police have confirmed they have had a complaint and are investigating whether the billboards can be regarded as racist. Police spokesman Alexander Szabo said: „Kosice police has registered a complaint. We will investigate the case and pass on a report to prosecutors.“ Meanwhile some of the billboards have been defaced by people who have pasted on Ku Klux Klan images, a move which Guertler condemned as an attack by „human-rights extremists“.
Activist Laco Oravec from the Milan Simecka Foundation that is fighting to get a better situation for Roma people said: „This campaign benefits from the appalling situation of Roma in the country who are forced to live in a really primitive way. „The idea of moving people who are not convenient for us may be welcomed by voters, but it is totally amoral. The problems have to be solved and not to be moved elsewhere. This candidate is clearly a racist.“

Source: Croatian Times
Date: 16.10.2014