A record number of Roma mayors won in the municipal elections. In the next election period, there will be 52 of them.
For comparison – in 2010, there were only 12 of them. Despite the growing number, Roma are only slowly getting involved in local government affairs.
The debate in Montenegro about reserved seats for the Roma minority continues.
According to the debate held, it is necessary to ensure that the Roma community has a representative in the Parliament of Montenegro, because members of that people would explain in the best way what problems they are facing and what they see as a solution. This was assessed at the panel discussion “Reserved mandate for members of the RE population in the Parliament of Montenegro”, organized by the Centre for Monitoring and Research (CeMI) and the MINA agency.
The right question is to ask what a single (or even a few) reserved seats for minorities can do to change things. The anser is easy: NOTHING. This is an alibi exercise.
Another mayor in Slovakia is a Rom. This is a trend, as more and more Roma get involved in politics. In this case, it is in Strány pod Tatra, where the Roma candidate won. The village of roughly 2’300 inhabitants has above 90% of Roma residents.
The new mayor of Milan, in recognition that his election was also partly due to the vote of the local Rroma, is starting a new ini9tiative to resolve the issues this minority faces in the city. It aims at finding solution for the camps around the city as well as to promote the integration of Rroma in the city.
Good!
Rroma are still under-represented in politics in Spain. An article about a Rromni who is gearing up to gain a seat in Parliament!
A review and views on the work of Peter Pollak and his impact on Rroma issues. This highlights also the fact that a single Rrom in a parliament is bound to face issues and be seen as failing, and also that there are many established institutions who prefer “their” Rroma reality to the hard facts …
Hard job, long term, and impossible hurdles.
The government proxy for Rroma affairs, Peter Pollak resigned from his pots on April 4th. Pollak was very much engaged in improving the situation for Rroma in Slovakia, he himself running a school in Jarovnice.
A successor will be nominated by the Most-Hid coalition.
For the first time in Spain, a Rromni is on top of the list of her party – Podemos – in Salamanca. Well done!
Not acceptable. Gilles Bourdouleix’ condemnation for racism for having said that “Hitler probably did not kill enough of them” has been slashed. The reasoning from the judges is quite special: He did not intend these words to be made public… But he told them, so he is certainly racist.
SHAME AND PROTEST!!!!
Rroma are being used for political purposes by the Swiss right, this time in the French speaking part of Switzerland.
The French Front National, the extreme right party is using Rroma in their populist discourse for the upcoming local elections in France. This is even used to gain electors in other communities such as Jews …
SHAME!
The Red-Green Government of Thuringia wants to protect Rroma and Sinti from discrimination. About time…
The Turkish government named a Rroma advisor to the PM in order to further their existence, integration and to launch a series of reforms.
In view of the prevalent very negative views on Rroma in that country, and in view of such examples such as Sulukule, we hope that this will be successful.
Turkish opposition Republican’s People party fielded a Rrom candidate in one of the Western Turkish provinces in Izmir. The Rrom candidate in on fifth position in the party’s list for that circumscription. We wish him all the luck!
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