Category Archives: News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Most of the numerous articles this weak about Roma in France are dedicated to the creation of a new camp in Doulon, Nantes, set to temporarily house Roma who where displaced by the closure of other camps in the region. Neighbours complain that they were not consulted and they vocally object to Roma living next to their houses.

Not a single article raises the questions of why these Roma who have been in France for a long time need to live in such camps, and not one asks why the reactions of the future neighbours are so based on stereotypes.

 

Antigyspyism in Germany

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Antigyspyism in Germany

The Thuringian state government will not reappoint the position of antigypsyism commissioner. As a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice told MDR Thuringia, the state government views the integration of Sinti and Roma as a cross-departmental task. All ministries—including education, labor, health, and housing—are responsible for ensuring equal access.

This is not going to help …

Germany and Roma Migrants

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Germany and Roma Migrants

A Berlin hotel housing Sinti and Roma has been a crime hotspot for years. Now, the spokesperson for the Berlin Police Union (GdP), Benjamin Jendro, has advocated for revoking Schengen travel rights for criminal EU foreigners. “We need to talk about perhaps not necessarily creating incentives for these people to come here,” Jendro told “Welt TV.” “We’re talking about criminal offenses. People are deliberately sent to steal. We’re talking about disturbances of the peace, physical assault, and threats.”

Bad.

Italy: An accident and Politics

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Italy: An accident and Politics

Four Roma children aged between 11 and 13 stole a car, raced through Milan, and ran over an elderly woman, killing her. The accident shocked the whole of Italy, partly because the children are Roma. Lega leader Salvini wants to demolish entire Roma camps.

On Social Media, Salvini wrote:  “The Roma camp must be cleared immediately, and then razed to the ground, after years of theft and violence, pseudo ‘parents’ must be arrested, and parental rights must be revoked. Mayor Sala and the left, are you there???”

Bad.

Italy and Roma

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Italy and Roma

An article about the fact that parking Roma in camps or razing them is not going to resolve the issue and will not bring children to school. In fact, most children in those camps do not go to school at all.

Bad, but nothing new in Italy.

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

The usual in French news … A camp near Nantes in Western France will be closed as it is in an area slated for renaturalization. Neddless to say, nothing is planned to relocate these people. In Angers, Roma refuse to leave their camp in spite of a court order. In Toulouse in the South, the site of a former camp is being cleaned out. What will happen there is open.

France and Travellers

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France and Travellers

In the Vosges Mountains, Travelers have set up camp with around 400 caravans on agricultural meadows. After years without major problems, the situation escalated this time as both sides sought an agreement – apparently failing due to a lack of consent from the farmers. The farmers took drastic measures to evict the unwelcome guests: they sprayed manure.

Bad.

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

A first in the French press, and a welcomed one. For the first time since we actually do these press reviews, the French press not only speaks about the Genocide of the Roma during the Holocaust, but also for the French involvement, and that it happened there too.

The rest of the news, unfortunately, is more of the usual: Families facing expulsion in Nantes; the closure of a camp near Toulouse, but for a change, people finding new lodgings; some travelers camping near Toulouse; and the death of a young Roma boy who was killed by a passing car while crossing the road.

Près d’Annemasse : il s’arrête pour une pause pipi, traverse la route et se fait mortellement percuter. In: M Annecy. 01.08.2025. https://mannecy.fr/news/locales/105106/pres-d-annemasse-il-s-arrete-pour-une-pause-pipi-traverse-la-route-et-se-fait-mortellement-percuter

Germany, Justice, and Prejudice

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Germany, Justice, and Prejudice

The Gera Regional Court will not open a trial against controversial administrative judge Bengt Fuchs. The public prosecutor’s office had accused him of incitement to hatred.

In August 2019, Fuchs allegedly wrote a comment under a Facebook post in a student fraternity group that was deemed incitement to hatred. Fuchs allegedly equated the Sinti and Roma ethnic groups with traveling gangs of thieves. In the group, the user “Bengt-Christian Fuchs” had described the group as “rotational Europeans with a weakness in property attribution.”

If this is not racist, what is?

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Only one story this week in the French press about Roma: The closure and destruction of a Roma camp near le Bourget north of Paris.

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Not much this week in France about Roma. Roma squatting on private land in Angers, and in Nantes, the anger of residents faced with several Roma families who settled in this neighbourhood. The latter thing to be taken with a grain of salt as the paper is notoriously extreme right.

Art and Roma

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Art and Roma

An interview with art historian, art critic (she won the AICA prize in 2023) and curator, Elora Weill-Engerer. She is publishing “Le jour lui n’a qu’un jour. Sept textes sur Ceija Stojka” [The day has only one day: seven texts about Čeja Stijka. this fall and is curator of the exhibition “Les Rois morts” [Dead Kings] at the Suzanne Tarasieve gallery in Paris (until August 2). She is currently preparing, under the supervision of Elvan Zabunyan and Pierre Wat, a doctoral thesis at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne on the

The later part, unfortunately, reflects the lack of knowledge in France about Roma and the still prevailing stereotypes.

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

The usual in France about Roma. The reedition of a reportage in a Roma slum in Marseille, perpetuating stereotypes. With the closure of a camp in Nantes, the Roma families are asked to sign a convention with the municipality, pushing them towards compliance with norms and involvement with social services. Finally, also in Nantes, in a neighbourhood where Roma were given housing are protesting against them.

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Not much about Roma in France this week. In fact, two articles about Roma: a project entitled “rencont’roms nous” aimed a children, and a so-called insertion village is being contested in Western France.

Gypsy Gangs…

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Gypsy Gangs…

Typical Trabloid fare. Irish Gypsy gangs (read Irish Travellers) who are not related to Roma, are being accused of going to Gibraltar to marry underage girls.

Bad, and worse “journalism”…

Greece and Bulgaria: Traffic

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Greece and Bulgaria: Traffic

A lengthy article about a traffic of cheap Chinese ware landing in Greece and being sold in Bulgaria. It seems that most of the drivers who pass this across the border are Roma.

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