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10 February, 2015
Rock hard criticism of Norwegian child protection from the president of the Czech Republic
by Jan Simonsen
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This article was originally published in Norwegian on Jan Simonsen's blog "Frie Ytringer" ("Free Expressions") on 10 February 2015.
It is published here with the author's generous consent.
Translation by Marianne Haslev Skånland
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"In a live show with president Zeman, the president ventured into the questions around the Norwegian social services, which since 2011 have held the sons of Eva Michaláková on account of abuse from the father. The president compared the Norwegian system to Nazi camps," writes Czech newspaper Blesk. This has made VG wake up.
In the article Tsjekkias president sammenligner norsk barnevern med nazi-program (President of the Czech Republic compares Norwegian child protection to Nazi program), the paper VG for the first time writes about the huge outcry which the Norwegian child protection case has caused in the Czech Republic – which we have written about several times earlier on Frie Ytringer (Free Expressions). The Czech national assembly has previously asked the Czech prime minister to demand an explanation from Norway of why the Czech mother has not got her children back. And Christian Democrat politician Tomáš Zdechovský has taken the case up in the European Parliament.
According to Czech radio today, the Czech Republic will continue to put diplomatic pressure on Norway in connection with the case, Czech prime minister Bohuslav Sobotka told the mother Eva Michaláková in a meeting earlier today.
A representative of the Czech child welfare office in Brno will visit Norway in the next few days to discuss an increase in the mother's visitation with her children and to make sure that the boys are taught Czech language. He will also convey a Czech promise that the boys' welfare will be monitored if they are returned to the Czech Republic.
The president of the Czech Republic now compares Norwegian child protection to the Nazi program Lebensborn, which was established by Heinrich Himmler during the second world war to further racial hygiene and strengthen the Nordic race. He points to the mother only being allowed to meet with her children a couple of times a year for a few minutes, and not being allowed to speak Czech with the children.
The Czech social-democrat president, Miloš Zeman, is known not to mince matters. He has previously blamed Islam for the killings of several Jews outside a museum in Brussels in May of last year, and has shown himself as a staunch friend of Israel, with a controversial proposal of moving the Czech embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
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