Category Archives: News Western Europe

Dolores Dori

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Dolores Dori

Dolores Dori, a 44 year old Sintica/Romni who was killed in a feud in Lonato del Garda, Brescia is the subject of numerous articles in the Italian press. He mother and her son were apparently arrested. At the core of the story is the daughter who eloped with a boy from the Roma camp in which Dolores was killed.

Italy: Feud

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Italy: Feud

A feud between Roma resulted in the killing of a 44 year old woman. According to the latest reports, she arrived to collect her daughter, who had moved to the camp against her parents’ wishes. The woman is said to have been having an affair with a boy from the camp, but, according to Brescia Today, she has already been promised in marriage to another man.

She was later shot and wounded and died in a hospital where she was found at the entrance of the emergency room.

Bad.

Greece, Police, and Roma

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Greece, Police, and Roma

With 24-hour patrols by the Greek Police in Roma camps and the announcement of the recruitment of 50 gypsy police officers, the Ministry of Citizen Protection is attempting to present a new policing and mediation plan. It started all with a claim that effectively, Roma are basically criminals.

Roma in Greece are protesting against those measures and say that those measures will not build trust.

The Minister of Citizen Protection, Michalis Chrysochoidis clarified that “the police will hire approximately 50 uniformed police officers, unarmed, with special duties, who will be close to the Police Departments of the areas where these vulnerable groups live and will play the role of social mediator, this will be their mission.”\

So basically not really police, and not a role that can be sustained.

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Not much in France this week … A fire in a Roma camp near Nantes, in Western France; one site also in Wenstern France needs rehabilitation, as it has been too degraded; and one camp being dismantled near Paris. 

Amico Rom

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Amico Rom

The 32nd edition of Amico Rom, an event combining a competition, awards, music, cultural events, and celebrations, will get underway on October 3, 2025. Following the well-attended and moving celebration in memory of the deported Roma and Sinti children held on September 30, this Friday there will be three events in Lanciano: at 10:30 a.m., in the Parco delle Memorie, the solemn ceremony for the Samudaripen (Roma and Sinti genocide) will be held, with the laying of a laurel wreath and speeches by the authorities; At 4:00 pm, the Casa di Conversazione will screen the documentary “A Roma’s Dream,” starring Croatian MP Veljko Kajtazi.

Catalogna: Exhibition

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Catalogna: Exhibition

Mercedes Porras, a Romani activist and curator of the exhibition The Roma people in Catalonia: history and culture, which can be seen at the Museum of the History of Catalonia until August 2, 2026 is part of the commemoration of the 275th anniversary of the Great Raid of 1749 and the 600th anniversary of the arrival of the Roma people to the peninsula.

Final Rest

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Final Rest

Three Roma remains collected for racist research purposes around 150 years ago have been interred at Leipzig’s Südfriedhof Cemetery. “In the best case scenario, we can succeed in alleviating some of the suffering that was committed long ago in the here and now,” said Prof. Martin Gericke, who heads provenance research at the Institute of Anatomy in Leipzig.

Ake Dikhea

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Ake Dikhea

The film festival “Ake Dikhea” is starting. Two films currently highlighted are “Reaching for the rope”, and “The earth beneath Margaret’s feet”.

Georges Soros and Roma

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Georges Soros and Roma

The Central Council of German Sinti and Roma is awarding this year’s European Civil Rights Prize to George Soros (95). The US founder, investor, and philanthropist is being honored for his decades-long international commitment to Sinti and Roma, the association announced in Heidelberg on Tuesday. The award is also intended to draw attention to the dangers of growing antigypsyism, which is once again manifesting itself in Germany and many European countries through violence against the minority by nationalists and right-wing extremists.

Early Weddings, Virginity, and Stereotypes

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Early Weddings, Virginity, and Stereotypes

A scandal currently seems to be on the front pages of several Austrian newspapers. The case of a wedding of 12 years old who, according to the press was no longer a virgin.

As usual, this is being described as common practice among all Roma. This is not the case, and concerns mostly a minority of all Roma communities.

Germany, AfD, and Roma

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Germany, AfD, and Roma

In Gelsenkirchen, the SPD governed with an absolute majority for a long time. Now the shock is deep: In the local elections, the AfD fell just 0.5 percent short of victory. FOCUS-online reporter Ulf Lüdeke asked the local authorities why this was the case shortly before the mayoral runoff.

One of the statements of this article is that:

“The population has shrunk to around 270,000, 75,000 of whom do not have German passports. 11,000 are Roma and Sinti from Bulgaria and Romania. Thanks to EU labour freedom, criminal clans lure them legally to the Ruhr region, herd them into abandoned, dilapidated properties, and rip them off on social security contributions.”

Besides the fact that there are no Sinti in Bulgaria or Romania, this statement is utterly inacceptable.

French Chronicle …

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French Chronicle …

Not much this week in France about Roma. Not surprising as there was many other more important news, like Sarkozy condemned to prison. In the South of France in Montpellier, a worrisome development, shots were fired at a Roma camp.

The Catholic Church and Roma

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The Catholic Church and Roma

A Roma delegation from the Czech Republic led by Karel Karika, Chairman of the Czechoslovak Roma Union, today attended a general audience with Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter’s Square. Representatives of the Roma community delivered an exceptional message to the Holy Father: They requested the symbolic lifting of the excommunication of Roma from the Catholic Church, which was declared in 1427 and not abrogated to this day!

Pope Leo XIV also signed a Romanes translation of the Bible during a personal meeting with a Roma delegation from the Czech Republic.

Germany, Politics, and TV

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Germany, Politics, and TV

Paul Ziemiak (40), member of the CDU Federal Executive Board and Secretary General of the NRW CDU, during a TV Talk Show hosted by Maybrit Illner addressed the criticism of many voters regarding the “massive” immigration of Sinti and Roma from Romania and Bulgaria in the debate on social abuse.

Apart from the fact that there are no Sinti in either Bulgaria and Romania, highlighting the ignorance of both the politician and the journalist, this immigration is not massive, and is not the main problem faced by social care in most western countries: Single mothers, elederly are often poor and consume a very large part of the money. But this doesn’t win votes …

Greece and Roma

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Greece and Roma

The Greek Police is planning to recruit 100 Roma, as revealed by “TA NEA”, the Ministry of Citizen Protection a few days after Michalis Chrysochoidis announced the installation of a force of 70-100 police officers in camps to control delinquency. This process, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year, has as its main objective the better operational planning and the creation of information networks of the security authorities to deal with gangs in the western suburbs of Attica, but also where there is a density of Roma, as this particular community is considered to have a large share (over 50%-60%) in thefts, burglaries and frauds.

This is very closely reminiscent of what the nazis did … https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jüdischer_Ordnungsdienst

Greece, Roma, and the Police

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Greece, Roma, and the Police

Greek Minister of Citizen Protection, Michalis Chrysochoidis announced the installation of specialized police officers inside the Roma camps. This will start happening in 1.5 months, while the police officers in question will be subordinate to the Greek FBI.

“This tolerance that existed for years -decades- and which for me is incomprehensible, must come to an end”, he stressed.

Basically, he is saying Roma are criminals that need to be monitored…

RomnoPower

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RomnoPower

As part of the RomnoPower Culture Week 2025, Cinema Quadrat and the Baden-Württemberg Association of German Sinti and Roma will present

director Adrian Oeser’s two documentaries in person. In addition, protagonist Wesley Höllenreiner will provide insights into his family history. Both films address the long periods of disenfranchisement of Sinti and Roma.

Belgium: Trial

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Belgium: Trial

Dries Van Langenhove appears before the Leuven Criminal Court on Tuesday. The far-right activist is due to answer for comments made during a controversial lecture he gave last year in a lecture hall at KU Leuven.

The conference was organized on February 28, 2024, at the initiative of the Nationalist Student Association (NSV). The founder of the Schild & Vrienden movement was supposed to give a lecture on regenerative agriculture, but instead preferred to present his political vision, making numerous controversial statements. He stated, in particular, that “it is logical that fewer Black Africans obtain engineering degrees, but that they are better long-distance runners because there are differences between ethnic groups.” He also called Roma women “thieves.”

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