Czech Attitudes Towards the Roma: 'Expecting More of Havel's Country'?

National Identity and the Interplay between National Pride and Ethnic Exclusionism: The Exceptional Case of the Czech Republic

“…However, one can still find some ethnic minorities in the Czech Republic, most importantly the Roma community. As Fawn (2001) convincingly demonstrates, since the formation of the independent state, Czech -Romani relations have been particularly difficult and problematic, seriously jeopardizing Czech accession to the European Union (EU) and affecting Czech relations with several western countries. For instance, following the break-up of Czechoslovakia, a controversial citizenship law went into effect.…”

“…According to the law, non-Czechs who had an objectionable criminal record and individuals without verification of a five-year period of residence were ineligible for Czech citizenship. The law was probably drafted in order to exclude Roma, the majority of whom were considered Slovak by many Czechs, thus placing them in a state of statelessness (Fawn, 2001;Linde, 2006;Dedić, 2007). Passed in response to international pressure, the 1999 and 2003 amendments to the Czech nationality legislation remedied most of these problems.…”

“…One can find many other instances of clashes between the Czech majority and the Roma minority, although a detailed account of Czech -Romani relations after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia is beyond the scope of this article. 2 In sum, Roma point to a lack of means and opportunities to integrate into Czech society; Czechs mostly argue that the Roma are unwilling or unable to do so (Fawn, 2001).…”

Foreground Liberalism, Background Nationalism: A Discursive‐institutionalist Account of EU Leverage and ‘Democratic Backsliding’ in East Central Europe

“…The treatment and status of the Roma minority, estimated at 2–3 per cent of the population, threw Czech self‐perceptions into sharp relief, functioning in President Havel's words as ‘a litmus test of civil society‘ (cited in Fawn, , p. 1195). This was also a focus of concern for the EU during accession.…”

Cultural policy and the governmentalization of Holocaust remembrance in Europe: Romani memory between denial and recognition

“…Though small monuments have been erected near both localities and annual meetings at these sites have been used for both commemoration and protest, national and local debates on the removal of the businesses have frequently led to outbursts of anti-Roma sentiments and even Romani Holocaust denial. In the late 1990s, for instance, a representative of the extreme-right Czech Republican Party declared that building a monument to the Roma would be 'simply rudeness and an insult to all white citizens of this state' (Josef Krejsa cited in Fawn 2001Fawn , p. 1201.…”