An overview of the current situation, progress, and challenges faced by Roma in Spain.
Not many news this week in France about Roma. Two very different articles on so-called insertions villages in Western France. One, with a positive twist in Saint Herblain, one with a hint of a strong opposition at local level in Orvault. Finally, a debate about Roma from Romania with an association that helps them but unfortunately also perpetuates some stereotypes.
Almost nothing this week on Roma in France. A single article over a site for the reintegration for Roma families.
The council of Europe is raising concerns about Roma in Cyprus, where they are not recognised as a minority. Many of them originally came from Bulgaria after the split of the island.
Since November 15, the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis has deployed police officers to 152 areas inhabited by Roma across the country. These “prevention and mediation teams,” as the government calls them, are composed of 473 police officers and 50 mediators tasked with serving as a bridge between law enforcement and the Roma community. They have begun patrolling in the provinces, Thessaloniki, and Attica, and are responsible for monitoring the camps 24/7, conducting preventative checks, and informing Roma citizens about administrative procedures or directing them to social services.
In brief, a special police for Roma settlements.
The Roma organisation from Scotland, Ando Glaso, is organising a series of music events under the theme of barvale nights..
or 18 years, Jenny Rasche from the Harz Mountains has been dedicated to helping Roma children in Romania, where she now lives. Through her efforts, a slum on the outskirts of Sibiu has been completely transformed; Roma children without prospects have grown into young adults with a future. For her work, this dynamic woman was honored with the Kindernothilfe (Children in Need) Honorary Award on November 14, 2025. Reporter Antje Schneider also closely documented this work for years in the MDR series “Jenny and the Roma Children,” which can be viewed in the ARD Mediathek (ARD Media Library).
Diepholz’ district museum is dedicating a special exhibition to Mariechen Franz, a sintiza who died shortly before her 17th birthday in 1944 in Ravensbrück. The exhibition will open next Saturday. The exhibition thematises the persecution of Sinti and Roma under the Nazi based on the example of Mariechen Franz.
A Forum on minority education was recently held in Vienna. At this meeting, every summer, issues regarding the languages of Croats, Ugric, Roma and Slovenes in education are discussed.
Question is, what is the impact?
The musician and activist Harri Stojka is calling for the swift construction of a memorial for Roma and Sinti in Austria at Schmerlingplatz in Vienna. “There, at a historically significant location in the heart of Vienna, a visible symbol of remembrance and recognition should be erected.”
On Saturday, the Roma and Sinti who were murdered during the National Socialist regime were commemorated in Lackenbach. Along with numerous state politicians, the Minister of Justice, Anna Sporrer (SPÖ), participated. Of the 4,000 Roma and Sinti who were interned in the Lackenbach camp since the summer of 1940, only 300 to 400 survived the liberation of the camp in the summer of 1945.
Almost no news about Roma this week in France. An expulsion, five days before the winter expulsion truce in France. And a testimony of a Romni who was deported to the French camp of Rivesaltes and who says the French were worse than the German.
The German Federal Cabinet has adopted a new concept for memorial sites commemorating the crimes of National Socialism and the injustices committed in the GDR. Since there are fewer and fewer living witnesses, younger generations are to be informed using digitization, for example, with holograms of eyewitnesses. The concept also focuses on preserving historical sites and promoting education and research through new exhibition formats.
Timur Husein, a CDU representative in Berlin and the speaker for antisemitism in the Berlin Parliament, is being criticised for a tweet using the Z-word and really playing with stereotypes. He said, regarding the SPD candidate for mayor of the city:
LINKE-Bürgermeisterkandidatin @ElifEralpBerlin will, dass alle illegalen Sinti & Roma (Zigeuner) aus dem Ausland in Deutschland bleiben dürfen (so im Neuen Deutschland). Neuer Pull-Faktor für weitere illegale Zuwanderung! Um das zu verhindern, am 20.9.2026 CDU wählen!
Left Party mayoral candidate @ElifEralpBerlin wants all illegal Sinti and Roma (Gypsies) from abroad to be allowed to stay in Germany (according to Neues Deutschland). This would create a new pull factor for further illegal immigration! To prevent this, vote CDU on September 20, 2026!
This politician doesn’t even know that outside of Germany, France, and Italy, there are no Sinti (or so few that it doesn’t matter).
Not much this week in France about Roma. Several camps in the region around Paris were vacated without expulsion. In the north of France, an NOGo noted 2300 expulsions. And in central France, a huge meeting of evangelical Roma with more than 40’000 people.
The Higher Regional Court Thürigen (OLG) has decided not to open the case against Bengt Fuchs, Vice President of the Gera Administrative Court, on charges of incitement to hatred.
The Gera Public Prosecutor’s Office indicted Fuchs in April 2025. The indictment stemmed from a Facebook post in which he referred to members of the Sinti and Roma community as “rotating Europeans with a weakness in property rights.” The Public Prosecutor’s Office considered this to constitute the offense of incitement to hatred under Section 130 of the German Criminal Code (StGB).
Well, this is racism.
A conference on the representation of Sinti and Roma in Holocaust films will be held November 12-14, 2025.
https://www.fsa.uni-heidelberg.de/en/filmhub/holocaust-film/conference2025
Two articles in the French press about the manifestations and fall out after a man was killed after being aggressed by Roma in Novo Mesto.
Many articles about Roma this week in France. Four camps in Hellemes, in the North of France will be dismantled shortly. One camp in Annecy in the French alps will also be closed in November. A large camp that exists since 5 years will be closed in Marseille. In the same city afire broke out in another Roma camp. Near Paris, another camp is slated for closure. In Annecy, tensions are on the rise between residents and Roma from a nearby camp.
Evacuation d’un camp de roms installé près des Espaces V à Villepinte. In: Aulnay Libre. 28.10.2025. https://www.aulnaylibre.com/2025/10/evacuation-d-un-camp-de-roms-installe-pres-des-espaces-v-a-villepinte.html
Last October, two villas illegally built by a family involved in various criminal activities were destroyed in Via Arzachena, in the Rocca Cencia area of greater Rome.
Now, Rome’s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri is being threatened on social media: A young man in a black overall holding a submachine gun: “This is for you, Mayor, and for your family. Just as you’ve already destroyed our house, I’ll destroy yours; time will tell. The State doesn’t scare me.”
The threats on social media against Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri, along with the Facebook post since deleted, were made by Silvio Hilicic, nicknamed “Silvio Silvietto,” a member of the Komarov-Hilicic family.
The Italian press qualifies them as Sinti, which seems dubious.
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