Prague - The members of the European Parliament urged the Czech Republic earlier this week to remove a pig farm situated in a place of former concentration camp in Lety near Písek, 80 kilometres south of Prague.
A memorial for the victims of Nazi persecution, particularly that of Roma minority, which was interned in the camp, should be raised in the place instead.
Czech Christian-Democratic (KDU-ČSL) MEP Jan Březina disapproves with the appeal, second passed by the EP in the last two years.
"If the EU is to intervene in a sphere of sovereign authority of the Czech state, it should grant at the same time two billion CZK (77 millions euro) that are necessary to remove the hogpen and build the memorial. Otherwise, this all is just trashy populist moralizing," said Březina.
When a resolution on European strategy for Roma minority was discussed and eventually passed, Březina abstained.
"Blame Germany, not us"
In addition, Březina criticized Czech-born German MEP from the European Greens Milan Horáček.
According to Březina, Horáček should blame his own country for Lety, since present-day Germany is a legal successor of Nazi regime that ruled over the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia as a de-facto occupying power.
"Not Czech, but German authorities are historically responsible for concentration camp in Lety," believes Březina. He however agrees that the problem needs to be solved.
Horáček was born in Czechoslovakia and emigrated to West Germany as a dissident during the communist regime era.
Other options
In the Czech Republic, a special commission led by Minister Džamila Stehlíková, who is in charge of issues related to minorities, is discussing the question of Lety. Her group has until the end of the year to present its suggestions.
"The request made by the EP is formulated rather badly. In this version, it's difficult to fulfill it," said Stehlíková who sees the resolution as "quite uncompromising".
She is convinced that the removal of hogpen buildings isn't the only option. "A possibility of converting the production is presenting itself too," she mentioned.
"Politically motivated attack"
"The Czech Republic doesn't fare worse than other states in handling the issue of Roma people and it absolutely doesn't deserve to be a target of a politically motivated attack by the European Parliament," claimed Březina.
"Creating mass hysteria and inflating the cause to gargantuan size distracts the attention from real and serious problems of the Roma population and causelessly harms the image of the Czech Republic," he concluded.
In their decision on strategy for the Roma minority, MEPs pointed to racial discrimination many of the Roma communities in Europe are forced to endure. According to them, anti-Roma sentiments are still widespread in the continent.
The EP believes that progress made in this field is still far from satisfactory.
