Czech Republic

I am aware that "extremism is a big issue all around eastern Europe". My point was that the Roma are finally protesting against the extremism and prejustice which has for too long been directed at them.

aha! - thank you damianrafferty

There's never a shortage of people prepared to believe that they are hard done by and some other group is receiving better treatment and doing bad things. Sadly, there is never a shortage of opportunists ready to take advantage of that resentment, stoke it up and set it loose.

The Roma in Central Europe were often (wrongly) thought to be favoured by the communist authorities. Attempts were made to settle them in housing. As most non-Roma people lived with their parents even when married, seeing some other group get scarce housing was galling. The Roma, however, did not always want to live a non-nomadic lifestlye and stories would go round about them sitting outside the blocks of flats in front of big fires burning the furniture within the flats.

The end of communism certainly seemed to life the lid on this and a whole series of other ethnic rivalries. Once groups start settling scores for real or imagined slights, the whole thing takes a momentum of its own and taskes generations to dampen down.