The European Parliament of Roma (EPR) on April 19 lambasted Slovak Roma hip-hopper Rytmus for remarks he made last week indicating that inhabitants of Roma settlements in Slovakia are degenerate and that he doesn’t like them and that the head of the Slovak National Party (SNS), Ján Slota, is right when criticising them, the TASR newswire wrote.
“Mr. Rytmus, you have built your career on profanities in your songs. Those ‘degenerated’ Roma buy your CDs with their last pennies,” EPR chairman Václav Kappel said in a written statement. Kappel went further with his. “When speaking about hip-hop, American blacks are far better, as they have perfect pitch – unlike you,” said Kappel to TASR, calling for Rytmus (age 33, real name Patrik Vrbovský from Piešťany in Trnava Region) to apologise for his remarks.
Slota had announced that his party wants to boost police patrols in areas inhabited by Roma. And that SNS intends to promote social benefits for Roma citizens in the form of goods to prevent them from “drinking the money away within days”. Kappel chided Slota for his claim last week that Roma are lazy and said that Slota cannot camouflage his anti-Roma sentiments by fraternising with people like Ladislav Fizik, who is Roma, an SNS member and was an advisor to former Construction and Regional Development Minister Marian Janušek.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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