Dunlop (2014) reports the annual procession in honour of Saint Sara in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, taking place on the 24th and 25th of May. According to legend, Sara was the servant of the three holy Marys who came to France as a result of the persecution of the Christians and founded a Christian community there. Another explanation is that Sarah-la-Kali, as Saint Sara is also called, is a Christian modification of the Hindu Goddess Kali. This hypothesis is supported by the Indian origin of Rroma. During the procession, a statue of the saint is carried from the church to the sea. The ceremony attracts thousands of tourists and goes against the usual negative image of the Rroma. For the incumbent mayor of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, Roland Chassain of the UMP, this is not a contradiction. Nicolas Sarkozy is said to appreciate riding and the music of the Rroma very much. Immigration policy is another matter, he states. With this, Dunlop points to a contradiction that is insufficiently discussed. When it comes to economic incentives, such as the famous St. Sara festival, the prejudices are happily laid aside for once. However, this tolerance disappears quickly when it comes to the removal of informal settlements, when the Rroma are again the hated minority: “Gitanes, Tigani, Roma, Gypsies – call them what you will, this is one day a year when, in the remote marshlands of the Camargue, they shed their minority status and become the majority. The sleepy seaside town, a stronghold of the National Front but ruled by the centre-right UMP, is transformed, the locals are outnumbered. “I am not anti-Gypsy”, protests Mayor Roland, “but their young are not disciplined, it has changed. It was different 40 years ago.”” However, Roland neglects in his explanation important historical and political upheavals. Not the young generation, the continued marginalization of the minority and economic crises lead to an escalation of the conflict between the minority and right-wing nationalist groups.

• Dunlop, Tessa (2014) Gypsy beat in France’s conservative south. In: BBC News online vom 30.5.2014. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27617492

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