Slovakia bans far-right train patrols targeting Roma

The Slovak parliament on Tuesday outlawed vigilante train patrols by a far-right party that had targeted the EU member's large Roma minority.

Members of the far-right opposition People's Party Our Slovakia (L'SNS) began patrolling Slovak trains in April after a 16-year-old boy attacked a 21-year-old woman and stole her wallet.

"No one can replace police in this country and no one should act like it either," Justice Minister Lucia Zitnanska said Tuesday, quoted by the local TASR news agency.

LSNS party chairman and MP Marian Kotleba -- whom critics accuse of being a neo-Nazi -- had labelled the wallet thief a "Gypsy extremist".

In August, leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico's coalition government tabled a draft amendment to the Railroad Act that would ban anyone other than police from patrolling the railways.

Parliament approved the amendment on Tuesday by 98 votes -- with 21 votes against and 20 abstentions.

"This is a positive development. We cannot accept or tolerate any activities aiming at intimidating the Roma minority," Grigorij Meseznikov, head of the Bratislava-based Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) think tank, told AFP.

"We will, however, see if the authorities will be able to ensure the fulfilment of this regulation."

Europe's largest and poorest minority, the Roma, are often socially excluded, including in Slovakia, where they make up around eight percent of its 5.4 million people.

The vote is "one of the very first, small steps the government has taken to tackle discrimination of the Roma," said Jozef Mezei of the Slovak Institute of Roma Social Sciences.

"No doubt it is a positive move and it is in line with the European Union's approach to the Roma minority that should be implemented in Slovakia in full," he told AFP.