Čunek in trouble again after suggesting Roma families perpetuate social exclusion
Controversial Christian Democrat leader Jiří Čunek is still angling for
a return to the cabinet, although the prime minister says he’ll have to
iron out his differences with the Green Party first. Mr Čunek was forced
out over an alleged corruption scandal, but the Greens also find his views
on the Romany minority somewhat distasteful. So his latest remarks on
integration are unlikely to curry favour with the Green Party leadership,
although they may succeed in boosting his flagging approval ratings.
Jiří Čunek is no stranger to controversy where the Roma minority is
concerned, indeed he seems to relish it. He’s now back in the news after
telling a party conference that social integration can only succeed where
“the dependence on traditional family structures” can be weakened. He
was talking about the 80,000 or so Romanies who live in close-knit family
groups in dilapidated apartment blocks and tumble-down houses.
Mr Čunek believes these close-knit, insular families living on social
security are contributing to their own social exclusion. The cushion
provided by the Romany family, he argues, acts as a counter-incentive to
venturing into mainstream society and finding gainful employment. That
claims has angered many in the Romany community, including Gabriela
Hrabaňová, a consultant for the Romany NGO Athinganoi.
“It’s unbelievable. I really don’t know where this man got all these
ideas or how he’s able to present this as the best expertise of the Czech
Republic. What he did in the past, evacuating dozens of Roma out of the
city, and now proposing this as the best solution – it’s really
unbelievable.”
Gabriela Hrabaňová was referring there to a controversial policy that
propelled Mr Čunek from the Vsetín mayor’s office to a seat in the
Senate, the party leadership and a cabinet post. Mr Čunek made waves
nationwide after closing down a squalid tenement building in the centre of
Vsetín and resettling its predominantly Romany inhabitants, most of whom
were rent defaulters living on social security.
Mr Čunek’s vocabulary (he spoke of “lancing a boil” in Vsetín) and
the net result of his actions (Romanies moved into glorified portacabins on
the outskirts of the town) divided the country. He was pilloried by Romany
organisations, the media and the political elite in Prague, but cheered on
by many ordinary Czechs, weary of politicians making empty promises about
“integrating” a minority they perceive as social parasites.
Once again his latest comments are likely to prove divisive. But some
observers perceive a clear motivation for making them – his public
approval ratings recently slumped, perhaps because he’s no longer in the
public eye after losing his cabinet post, and perhaps because the sight of
him struggling to regain that post is so ungainly. Comments such as
“traditional Romany culture is not compatible with the culture of a
modern society” might not win him any friends in the cabinet, but it’s
a sentiment many ordinary Czechs agree with.
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Jiří Čunek is no stranger to controversy where the Roma minority is
concerned, indeed he seems to relish it. He’s now back in the news after
telling a party conference that social integration can only succeed where
“the dependence on traditional family structures” can be weakened. He
was talking about the 80,000 or so Romanies who live in close-knit family
groups in dilapidated apartment blocks and tumble-down houses.
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