Daily Archives: August 8, 2014

Hungary News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

08.08.2014 Zoltán Balog denies deportation of Hungarian Rroma

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The Hungarian minister of human resources, Zoltán Balog, made headlines with a controversial statement about the deportation of Hungarian Rroma during National Socialism. On the occasion of the uprising in the Gypsy camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, on August the second, 1944, every year on this day a commemoration of the victims of genocide is held. Balog also recalled the events in an interview on state radio Kossuth, but also used the conversation to make some highly problematic statements: “It is important to know that no deportations of Gypsies from Hungary took place. These were done from Austria, that is, the Hungarian gypsies [sic] were taken away from there, and this is why Hungary is also really affected [from the Roma Holocaust]. The figures, however, vary greatly, some speak of 70,000, another of half a million, so it is important to have a solid documentation and research, where we can confront ourselves with these facts. […] I tell you honestly, that’s why I’m cautious on the issue of the Roma Holocaust, because this is a new discovery. The greatest tragedy of these people is that they have no history (…), and what that means, the Magyars know well, whom one wanted to rob their history, we are for a thousand years in one place, and then they find out (say researchers) that we are not or were not there” (Puszta Ranger 2014) Historical sources as well as eyewitness accounts of Holocaust survivors refute all these statements: there were direct deportations of Hungarian Rroma into the concentration camps. The Hungarian national socialist party Arrow Cross provably deported thousands of Rroma into the concentration camps of the Third Reich. As regards the aspect of history: it is true that the Rroma don’t have an own nation-state, but that does not mean that they do not have a good documented history that is thoroughly reviewed. A transnational ethnic minority can have a collective identity without the need to operate on the same rules as nationalism, as one might interpret Balog’s allusion. Balog’s statement that the Rroma should not rely too heavily on their identity as victims of the Holocaust, also caused great resentment. He stated: “I have witnessed the process through which the Gypsy intelligentsia has begun to say:  ‘pardon me, but we too have a Holocaust, and as such we too are part of this history.’ Yet I would still like to caution my Gypsy friends from concentrating too much on this element of their identity. Because even among the Jewry, many have come to the realisation that if the experience of the Holocaust and the knowledge that ‘we were victims’ are the only (or the most important) aspects of Jewish identity, then this creates internal confusion and schizophrenia. And this does not help these communities look towards the future” (Hungarian Free Press 2014). Although this statement may be well intentioned in terms of the social integration of the Rroma in Hungary, it also demonstrates great disrespect for the actual victims of genocide and their memory. From a minister of human resources more tactfulness in dealing with such an issue can be expected. Critics point out that Balog has made himself indictable by denying of the deportation of Rroma from Hungary, which violates article 333 of the criminal code that punishes the denial or trivialization of the Holocaust with up to three years imprisonment (compare Hirsch 2014, Hungarian Free Press 2014, The Budapest Beacon 2014 I/II).

News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Romania

08.08.2014 Rroma: “They are all Europeans”

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Küpper (2014) spoke with Benjamin Marx, who creates and develops affordable housing for the Aachen housing association. He initiated the refurbishment of an apartment building in Berlin-Neukölln, which accommodates dozens of Rroma families from Fantanele, in Romania, that is considered a showcase project. With the Julius Berger Award, which was conferred for the housing project at the Harzer Strasse, the Aachen housing association wants to improve conditions in Romania itself. Marx emphasizes that by no means all Rroma want to migrate to Western Europe, but primarily a part of the middle class: “Many people go. Those who can afford it buy the tomatoes at discount stores rather than to grow them themselves. That irritates. Growing chickens and farming in the garden is considered a poverty stamp, especially among those who pay attention to “Western values​​”. Who can afford it shares “Western values” by consumption. […] If German children’s [social care] money, 215 Euros, arrives in Fantanele because the child lives there, this corresponds to the average salary of a teacher. No integration and employment program of Romania can compete with such transfers. […] Among the Roma, the “middle class” goes away, the poor and the rich stay.” Marx stressed that he sees the integration of the Rroma as a pan-European task. Deporting the minority from one country to another makes little sense; all European States must participate in the inclusion of the Rroma. This involves a reduction of the wealth gap between the different European member states, which makes migration attractive, disregarding the poor minority protection in certain countries, which is also an essential cause for migration to Western Europe. One must emphasise that already now a large part of the Rroma is integrated in the various European states, but are not perceived by the public as Rroma. The focus is on members of the minority that attract attention because of poverty or crime, but they only make up a minority of the minority.

News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

08.08.2014 Plombières: Rroma pursued by the authorities demand a break

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Barret (2014) reports on the fate of around 60 Rroma, a third of them children, who are being hunted by the police through the streets of Marseille since the eviction of the informal settlement of Plombières on July the 24th. As soon as they have settled in one place, they are already again disturbed by the police forces. The homeless demand a break from the governmental persecution. Aid agencies criticise that many of those affected are totally exhausted. The organization Arte Chavalo asks for a temporary moratorium of the police evictions until an appropriate site for the accommodation of the 60 persons is found: ““Not a single day goes by without the police coming and expelling them from a small piece of land, where they have sat down. Day and night they are hunted and the police have been ordered to not give them any rest until they have left the city”, the activist of Arte Chavalo explains about the families that each morning get evicted from another car park and another place nearby the Boulevard de Plombières. “We condemn the discriminatory policy which is waged against them and which causes serious risks and disturbances to the public order for the population as a whole, of which children and innocent people are affected”” (Journal La Marseillaise 2014). The municipality of Marseille is required to end this senseless hunt and to provide the displaced families with reasonable accommodation in order to enable the aid agencies to resume their work, it is stated (compare Vinzent 2014).

Hungary News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

08.08.2014 Hungarian film festival: movies about Rroma being censored

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In September, the Film Festival CineFest will take place in the north-Hungarian city of Miskolc. Two films about the situation of the Rroma were disinvited by the program director, because they have too much political brisance for the local elections that will be held shortly after the festival. The documentary group DunaDock, who submitted the two films, states: “probably they fear losing government funding if they show our films”, said Diana Gróo from DunaDock to the news agency dpa. The festival director told the Hungarian media that there would be very well a “Roma program” at CineFest, which would show film portraits of “successful Roma”. The festival management did not comment on the rejected films on Roma. CineFest is among others under the auspices of the media agency NMHH, which is often accused of political censorship on behalf of the right-wing nationalist government” (TAZ 2014). Miskolc is a focal point of social conflicts about Roma. The municipal elections will take place on October the 12th. The film festival takes place from the 12th to 21st of September. DunaDock should have expanded the festival with a program series “DunaDock Master Class” as a permanent section. The documentary group announced to totally cancel their contribution to the festival, given the current circumstances: “The explanation of the CineFest leadership is incomprehensible to us; according to them the film festival takes place at the time of local elections, thus to avoid political conflicts and for security reasons they cannot undertake the presentation of any film dealing with the topic of Roma in Hungary; even their usual Roma workshop is cancelled. We believe that the documentary film is a medium that helps the empathy towards our fellow humans and we find it unacceptable that an independent filmmaker professional program’s freedom can be restricted by current politics. Under these circumstances DunaDOCK will not be present at the CineFest and we have notified already the organisers about our decision” (DunaDock 2014). Critical commentators see the disinvitation of the films as symptomatic of the ongoing dismantling of democracy in Hungary, at the expense of media freedom, the protection of minorities, pluralism and the rule of law (compare Kleine Zeitung 2014, Pusztaranger 2014, Spiegel 2014).

France News Western Europe

08.08.2014 France: more evictions of informal settlements

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Several French newspapers reported on the eviction of two informal Rroma settlements in Grigny, in the department of Essonne. On August the 5th, at 7 o’clock in the morning, the French authorities began the evacuation of the camp. Around 100 people were still present. The two settlements housed up to 300 people. 30 people will be included in an integration project, which will helps them to find jobs, to enrol their children in school and to improve their French skills. The remaining displaced persons were offered temporary accommodation. However, this does not resolve their problems. Most of those affected have already been evicted several times. Eighteen months ago, they had been driven off the neighbouring village. Nicolas Covaci, a former resident of the camp, complains: “You always, always get displaced. Nonetheless you work. There are ten families who have worked here regularly” (Francetv info 2014, compare Europe1 2014, Le Figaro 2014, RTL France 2014). One has to emphasise that the evictions of settlements complicate a long-term integration of the Rroma immigrants. Through the evictions, the pending problems and the question of integration are simply moved from one location to the next, but not resolved. Normally, new settlements are rebuilt after a very short time. With the media focus on the informal settlements, one suggests that there are only Rroma belonging to the underclass and who are poorly educated. However, according to estimations of the Rroma Foundation, around 100,000 to 500,000 Rroma are integrated and live unobtrusively in French society. The French media, the public and politics continuously neglect them.

Hungary News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

08.08.2014 Forced evictions of Rroma in Miskolc

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Pester Lloyd (2014) reports on the government-initiated evictions of Rroma in Miskolc. The enforced relocation leads to sustained demonstrations by residents and activists. About 600 people are supposed to make place for the expansion of a football stadium with a large parking space. Previously, the administration tried to prompt the Rroma to a voluntary relocation with premiums. Most of the apartments have been released for eviction due to overdue in payments by the inhabitants: “With rallies on site one wants to prevent the eviction and forced resettlement of 200 families and up to 600 people – who are supposed to move into an auxiliary settlement in the suburbs or to completely move away, each with a few thousand Euro compensation. “Ethnic cleansing” this is termed by the activists. […] On Wednesday, the first two homes were evacuated, one of which was occupied by an elderly woman with an amputated leg, the other by a family with three minor children. The parents were absent at the time of the administrative action. Contrary to popular stereotypes, the father was working and the mother was attending a training session.” Pester Lloyd further criticises that the eviction is illegal, despite of official court rulings, since the eviction is dealing with a municipal housing estate and not illegal buildings. Rents were in fact paid what renders the blanket judicial decision unlawful: “The Fidesz city-government, first of all mayor Ákos Kriza, is – despite the criticism – happy that “the rule of law in Miskolc works”, “the evictions are legal, “because the families have not paid rent to the city for years”. Opposition parties, civil rights activists and representatives of affected persons speak of “inhumane” and “illegal” actions on the part of the city-government and handed documents to the media, which should prove the payment of overdue bills.” Pester Lloyd sees the action as a renewed proof that the constitutional system in Hungary is gradually being degraded by the Fidesz-government.

Bulgaria Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Romania

08.08.2014 Chronicle of the „Rroma house“ in Duisburg

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On the occasion of the evacuation of the so-called “Rroma house” in Duisburg, Jakob (2014) takes look at the history of the three apartment buildings that housed up to 1,400 people at peak times. Since 2009, the residential complex “In den Peschen”, which had been purchased by the real estate agent Branko Barisic, was in the headlines. It was mostly due to the voices of angry residents who were complaining about noise, pollution, and petty crime. The Rroma themselves – if they really were all Rroma from Romania and Bulgaria, as it was claimed – remained largely unheard and were stylised as a bunch of uneducated poverty immigrants abusing the German social welfare system and spreading disorder and chaos. Again and again, culturalising arguments were evoked, one spoke of two colliding worlds, of the alleged anti-social behaviour and backwardness of immigrated Rroma. That the immigrants are socially disadvantaged families who are looking for better life in Germany was largely concealed. Likewise, that poverty has nothing to do with ethnicity and therefore there are also poor ethnic Romanians, Bulgarians who move to Western Europe. However, that it a mass exodus of “poverty immigrants” into the German social welfare system occurred, as was repeatedly claimed, is doubtful: there were always well-educated migrants, who didn’t receive any media attention. Critical statistics could not detect a mass influx from the new Schengen countries Romania and Bulgaria. Many stayed at home in their familiar social environment.

Jacob tries to show that the immigrants were largely left by themselves in their attempt to integrate and that a little bit more help by the authorities and residents would not have allowed the situation to escalate in such a way: “Little by little, the citizen protests against the Roma mixed with right-wing radicals. In the Internet there were calls to attack the house. In the local elections in May, right wing extremists received nowhere more seats than in North Rhine-Westphalia [NRW]. Pro NRW, which had demonstrated in front of the house, has since then send four representatives into the city council, the NPD one representative. The city saw the Roma mainly as a problem: a year ago, city director Reinhold Spaniel explained in the taz that the “social behaviour of many Roma” was “an impertinence”. The city was “completely overwhelmed” by them financially, Spaniel said. Duisburg feared the influx of other “economic refugees” and probably also an escalation of the situation. The Roma should go. […] While the neighbours were giving interviews to the TV-crews, Horst Wilhelm B., former caretaker, sat separately on his scooter and watched the exodus of the Roma. “They are pigs”, he says later quietly. He meant the neighbours. “They simply did not want any Gypsies here.” They were already offended when the children went to school and made ​​some noise. […] He himself didn’t want to live in the house any longer either, but the city didn’t do anything to give the people a chance in Duisburg. “Maybe”, says B., “everything would not have been so bad if the people had got some help.”” Jacob shows memorably that the integration of the people doesn’t only depend on their adaptability and willingness to integrate, but also on the willingness to incorporate them by residents and authorities. When both sides endeavour a successful integration, integration is usually effective. That this is absolutely possible prove the 110,000 to 130,000 Rroma who live integrated in Germany, often since generations. They are mostly ignored by the media.  

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