Category Archives: News Western Europe

Germany News Western Europe

80 Years

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With the so-called Auschwitz Decree issues 80 years ago, the Nazi regime ordered the deportation of Sinti and Roma from all over Europe to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp 80 years ago. Hundreds of thousands of Sinti and Roma fell victim to the genocide.

Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth and the chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, Romani Rose, commemorated the Sinti and Roma murdered by the National Socialists at the Sachsenhausen Memorial on Thursday.

Greece News Western Europe

Greece and Roma

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A long article about the shooting of a young Rom in Thessaloniki last week, and about the recurring police violence and racism against Roma and generally minorities in Greece, this with almost impunity.

It also highlights that the Roma are there since the Byzantine Empire (true, but most of the original Greek Roma are now in Turkey due to the population exchange in the 1920, and the current Roma are mostly Vach Roma who escaped the slavery), and it highlights the dire situation in which they are.

They are badly regarded in Greece and considered by many to be criminals.

This is bad.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany, Education, and Roma

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The German Conference of Ministers of Education, together with the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and the Alliance for Solidarity with the Sinti and Roma of Europe, has passed a joint declaration on teaching the past and present of Sinti and Roma in schools.

With this declaration, the three participants want to work towards schools intensifying their involvement with the past and present of the Sinti and Roma in the classroom and in extracurricular activities. In a special way, as in teacher training, awareness of the topic of antigypsyism should be raised.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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Not much about Roma his week in France. An interview with two Romanian Roma who live in a camp near Paris and their hops of finding work and having a proper lodging. Another article about the “white van”, or how a story about Roma stealing children took hold of France a few years back. Roma fighting back the expulsion from their camp in Bobigny, and another demand of closure in Saint Denis. Finally, Roma an criminality, here near Toulouse and about prostitution.

Greece News Western Europe

Greece: How not to Report

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A news article with an inciendary headline “Roma burned businesses, raided cafes and beat citizens

Western Attica is a battlefield” following the manifestations after the shooting of a young Rom in Thessaloniki. Yes, there were riots, shops got ransacked, but this was definitively not all Roma.

Bad journalism, unfortunately with a goal, namely to portray Roma as violent, dangerous and criminal.

Greece News Western Europe

Greece and Roma

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Roma leaders in Greece have appealed to calm following riots in major cities in Greece following the shooting of a young Roma in Thessaloniki. At least 10 police officers were injured during the riots in Athens with protester also commemorating another fatal shooting by the police in 2008.

Greece News Western Europe

More on the Thessaloniki Shooting

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There were manifestations in Athens, Thessaloniki, and other Greek cities following the shooting of Kostas Frangoulis, a 16-year-old Roma in Thessaloniki. He was severely wounded by the Police after allegedly failing to pay a €20 (£17) fuel bill at a petrol station. These manifestations took place on the eve of the commemoration of another shooting of another teenager killed on Decembe 6th, 2008 by an officer in Athens’ Exarchia district. Last year, another young Rom Nikos Sampanis was fatally shot in a car chase near Athens. There is a clear pattern of violence here.

The protesters shouted slogans such as “Stop the murderous police”.

Greece News Western Europe

Riots in Thessaloniki, Greece

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A 16-year-old Roma boy was shot by the police in Thessaloniki, Greece, after he allegedly filled his vehicle at a fuel station and drove off without paying. The young man is in hospital in critical condition and the policeman sho shot him has been suspended.

There was a protest march in the city, organised by leftists and anarchists which degenerated with some of the protesters smashing shop windows and throwing Molotov cocktails at the police. This is not good.

The shooting of a Rom by the police is not the first case in Greece unfortunately.

France News Western Europe

Montpellier Experiment

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The French city of Montpellier is carrying out an unprecedented experiment to try to integrate the Roma. The City evacuated the slum of Celleneuve, one of the largest in France, in favour of a “transition village”. Those who have agreed to go there benefit from intensive follow-up.

In April 2022, the slum in the Celleneuve district, west of Montpellier, was emptied and then destroyed after 10 years of existence. It was one of the biggest in France with 250 people. While slum dwellers are usually purely and simply expelled in France, without any alternative solution, the city of Montpellier and the prefecture of Hérault have opted for a different method. Thus, about fifty families agreed to be housed in a transitional village, on the edge of the highway, in a series of spartan but healthy bungalows equipped with water and electricity.

The numbers are interesting here: 250 people in a slum for 10 years …  And 50 families for 250 people means that families have on average 5 people. Not really the very large families that are reported to by the press.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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The United Nations is concerned about “the racist political discourse held by political leaders”, as well as the proliferation of hateful and discriminating words in the media in France. This is not new if one think what Manuel Valls, a former Prime Minister said about Roma while in power. But it is good that it is being highlighted.

Other news are more usual: A group of Roma and volunteers cleaned the garbage in a wood. Police arrested Bosnian Roma specialised in stealing power tools.

News Western Europe Portugal

Portugal and Roma

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The Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in a speech on Portugal’s Independence Day commemorated the contribution of Roma who fought for Portugal’s independence. Bruno Gonçalves, the vice president of the Roma organisation “Letras Nómadas” said that “for the first time in five centuries someone has had the courage to remember that the Portuguese are also Roma, who fought, who were also in historical records that often do not appear in textbooks or educational programmes”.

Europe Germany News Western Europe

Roma in Europe

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On German Television, Andreas Bönte talks with his guests about how Sinti and Roma live in Europe today, how prejudices can be broken down and how fairer coexistence can be shaped in the future. Among the prominent ones: Romani Rose, Dotschy Rienhardt, Mehmet Daimagüler.

They said it: The largest transnational minority in Europe.

BUT: Again, they speak of 600 years in Europe, forgetting that Bulgaria, Thrakia, Constantinople, and all the Balkan and Carpaths were and are also part of Europe and that Roma arrived there earlier. When will this stop.

News Western Europe United Kingdom

England and Wales Census

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For the first time in History, Roma in England and Wales had to possibility to declare themselves as such in a census. Over 100’000 did so, with many tens of thousands identifying themselves as Gypsies or Travellers.

Germany Moldova News Western Europe

Germany, Moldova, and Refugees

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There is an ongoing controversy in Berlin currently where the Senate wants to send 600 Moldovan refugees back to Moldova before Christmas to make room for Ukrainian refugees. Some of those 600 are Roma so this is not good.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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Two articles this week tackle the recurrent rumours of Roma stealing children in France. One documentary returns to the series of attacks perpetrated against the Roma community in Seine-Saint-Denis following fake news forcefully relayed on the internet. The other one looks at the many instances where this rumour made its mark: Marseilles in 2008, Paris region in 2018, in between Bordeaux, or even Naples in Italy.

Other news are more of the usual ones: 7 years of jail for Bulgarian Roma who smuggled tobacco; issues in a town near Geneva with Roma; and a film festival showing the movie “une jeunesse Rom”.

Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Poland

Romani Rose and Auschwitz Council

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Romani Rose, the chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma is a new member of the International Auschwitz Council. The Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki appointed him to the committee. The Council advises the Polish government on all matters relating to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial. Other members include Yad Vashem Chairman Dayan and World Jewish Congress President Lauder. Rose warned that nationalists and right-wing extremists in many European countries were trying to deny and relativize the crimes of the Holocaust against six million Jews and 500,000 Sinti and Roma. Every form of Holocaust denial and falsification of history must be opposed. Education programs specifically for young people at historical sites of persecution and extermination are important “to counteract anti-Semitism, anti-Gypsyism and racism in our societies,” Rose explained.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany and Roma

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Germany Antitziganism representative Mehmet Daimagüler, asks for the creation of a “truth commission” to deal with the persecution of Sinti and Roma during and after the Nazis. He explains why “reconciliation” lags why memorial events are a lie and why the minority cannot feel safe.

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