Miskolc Roma self-govt holds demo against city decree on slums

Budapest, June 25 (MTI) – Some 200 Roma and non-Roma people joined a demonstration organised by the local Roma self-government in Miskolc, northeast Hungary, in protest against a local council decree on the elimination of slums on the city’s outskirts on Wednesday afternoon.

The city council approved in May a decree sponsored by the ruling Fidesz-KDNP on dismantling the north-eastern Hungarian city’s “ghettos and slums” with the aim of making the city safer and more liveable.

Under the decree, the city council offers tenants of buildings regarded unsuitable for human habitation 1.5-2 million forints (EUR 4,900-6,500) to help them purchase better homes outside the city.

The local Roma community said the decree is discriminative and it saw “a real threat” in reactions it triggered, namely that several other towns and cities in the area in Borsod County made strong statements rejecting the affected inhabitants of Miskolc.

Gabor Varadi, the president of the Miskolc Roma self-government, announced today’s demonstration last week and said they had asked for Prime Minister Viktor’s intervention in ensuring that the city council should seek to resolve the issue in cooperation with the Roma and not against them.

Wednesday’s demonstration was joined by the Roma branch of the leftist Hungarian Solidarity Movement. They called it unacceptable that the council of Miskolc wants to resolve the issue of poverty, unemployment and lack of equal opportunities by means of a “paid-for removal” of residents.

The opposition Democratic Coalition told MTI in a statement that Miskolc has an anti-segregation plan drafted in 2008. It clearly identifies the problematic neighbourhoods and defines how these should be eliminated and alternative housing ensured to affected inhabitants, DK noted.