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Advertisement Company Pastes Over Contentious SNS Billboards
Wednesday 05 May 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, May 5 (TASR) - Billboard company euroAWK on Wednesday expressed regret over the fact that their advertisement space presented a motif evoking racial hatred, TASR was informed by Adriana Svarcova on behalf of the company's manager Kirsten van Landenghem on the same day.
According to Svarcova, euroAWK immediately pasted over the incriminating 29 billboards throughout Slovakia at the company's own expense. It wants to dissociate itself from such forms of political campaigning as presented on the billboards.
In the billboard, Slovak National Party (SNS) displays a photograph of a heavily tattooed bare-chested Roma man with the slogan: 'So that we don't feed those who don't want to work'.
According to Ondrej Dostal from non-parliamentary party OKS, with this campaign SNS has proven that it tries to get in on the anti-Roma agenda. Dostal likened the 'primitive racism' exhibited by SNS to that of the extremists from Slovenska Pospolitost (Slovak Togetherness). He also said he has filed a criminal complaint at the Prosecutor-General's office, at the Slovak Trade Inspectorate (SOI) and at Advertisement Committee in connection with these billboards.
Another non-parliamentary party Most-Hid is also appalled by the billboards, which insult the members of Roma minority and incite racial hatred, said Most-Hid spokesperson Nora Czuczorova. She added that the party expects a clear statement from all political parties condemning the billboards.
The billboards were also condemned by chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights, Minorities and the Status of Women Jozsef Berenyi. "The experience from other European countries show that such attacks in the times of global economic crisis can lead to an increase in racially-motivated violence, aimed at the ethnic minorities," said Berenyi. He added that SNS's activities cannot be hushed up, and this "dangerous precedent" has to be condemned by all democratic forces in Slovakia.
SNS caucus leader Rafael Rafaj confirmed for TASR that the party's election team will deal with euroAWK's actions. "I can assess it as an inadequate and unjustified intervention in our rights and it was surely a highly subjective evaluation of the situation and I am sure our lawyers will deal with it," said Rafaj.
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