Tag Archives: Politics

Belgique Nouvelles d'Europe de l'ouest

Belgium, Politics, and Roma

Published by:

Conner Rousseau, the president of the Vooruit party (Socialist) resigned after weeks of controversy on his statements about Roma. He apparently said “one has to get rid of them” and said they are “brown garbage”. He then claimed to his defence to have been drunk …

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Serbie

Serbia and Roma

Published by:

An interview in the Serbian press of Kosovo’s General Secretary of the National Council of Roma, Bajram Morena. By law, the National Council of Roma has competence in four areas: education, culture, official language use and information in the languages of national minorities.

Belgique Nouvelles d'Europe de l'ouest

Belgium, Politics, and Racism

Published by:

The Flemish socialist leader Conner Rousseau has been instructed by public prosecutors to follow therapy. He had made racist statements against Roma, and his apology, saying he was drunk at that time and would never say such things if sober did not help. Roma organisations filed a complaint and are part of a mediation procedure.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovakia, Fico, and Roma

Published by:

An increasing number of Roma are worried about the prime minister Fico and his plkans to abolish the office of the plenipotentiary for Roma of the Slovak government. Reason behind it might well be, that this office will decide on EU funds earmarked for Roma …

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Czech Roma Government Representative

Published by:

The Roma government representative Lucie Fuková says she is not a superwoman and cannot change the sometimes unfair system in a few days. She gets dozens of messages a day, requests for help with processing a request for compensation for illegal sterilization, with finding an apartment, requests for intervention in criminal proceedings, but also unconstructive insults and insults. Often shouts like: No one from the Roma voted for you, step down. And quite often, on the contrary, words of understanding and support.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovakia, Roma, and Politics

Published by:

In the new composition of the Parliament of Slovakia, out of 150 representatives, as many as six are Roma. And not by some kind of key, but as elected representatives. Many Roma voted for the the party called “Ordinary people and independent personalities” (OľaNO) led by Igor Matovič, which is at the end, with 9% of votes won became the fourth largest party in the Slovak parliament. In some places with a majority Roma population, Matovic’s alliance achieved election results that were suspicious even to the police: while other parties got two or three percent each, OLaNO collected over 90% of the votes.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovakia, Roma, and Fico

Published by:

The new Slovak prime minister Fico and his extreme right coalition partners are not exactly pro-Roma. Their first test will be on how to deal with the Roma of Telgárt, whose settlement burnt down over the summer and who are still housed in tents.

Fico will definitively need the office of the plenipotentiary for Roma communities, as for the first time, it has a large budget under its belt – it will distribute up to 400 million euros from European funds in the next few years, and also has greater powers.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

OĽaNO and Roma

Published by:

The big surprise of the last elections in Slovakia was the re-emergence of the OĽaNO party, which took almost all localities in Eastern Slovakia with a large Roma minority.

Electoral fraud was immediately suspected. But no concrete cases were found so far. The explanation of this success was presented by Igor Matovič, the party head, together with Peter Pollák, a Roma representative of this party. They said that it was the fear of the populist (and anti-Roma) Fico who drove Roma to vote en masse for OĽaNO.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovénie

Slovenia and the Mayor’s Initiative

Published by:

The initiative and law proposal presented by Slovenian Mayors aimed solely at Roma has been defeated in the Slovenian parliament.
The Labour Committee of the National Assembly rejected most of the mayor’s for regulating the situation of children from difficult social environments, with which the mayors of 11 Slovenian municipalities, among other things, wanted to start “solving” the “Roma problem”.

Hongire Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Hungary and the Extreme Right

Published by:

A special two-hour long debate between LL junior (László Lesi), a well-known musician-performer and László Toroczkai, president of Mi Hazánk, a extreme right party in Hungary.

The use of by the party of Roma for political purposes, citing demographic issues, gypsy crime as a perceived or real concept were discussed. Of course, Trianon was also mentioned …

Europe Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovénie

International Roma Conference

Published by:

On Thursday, September 21, an international Roma conference was held in Radenci, Slovenia. Representatives of the Roma community from 15 countries discussed several topics important to Roma with representatives of national and European institutions. In the foreground were the implementation of the European Commission’s ten-year plan for supporting Roma in the EU and the presentation of good practices for solving the problems of the Roma community.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovénie

Slovenia and Roma

Published by:

The Parliamentary Committee for Internal Affairs, Public Administration and Local Self-Government discussed the situation of the Roma community for several hours today. In 30 years, the situation has not improved, but worsened, it was heard several times today. They allocate 15 mio euros per year to this problem.

But they also highlighted some examples of good practices, such as afternoon activities for children in Roma communities.

No comments …

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovaquie

Slovak Politics and the Holocaust

Published by:

The OĽaNO chairman  and former prime minister Igor Matovič and the president of the Republic Milan Uhrík discussed in the program O 5 minut 12 on RTVS. He admitted that he “doesn’t go much” to his job as an MEP, but despite this, he earned more than 400,000 euros in the European Parliament.

At the beginning of the show, the moderator confronted Milan Uhrík with his past statements about the Holocaust. Uhrík did not directly condemn the Holocaust of Jews, Roma, LGBTI+ people, etc. “Certainly none of us wishes, neither now, nor in the past, nor in the future, that anyone, be it Igor Matovič, Milan Uhrík, your children, our children, anyone, would be taken to some concentration camp because he is small, fat big, white, black or whatever, we don’t even have to debate it.’

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est Slovénie

Slovenia and Roma

Published by:

After several months of campaigning, 11 mayors and mayors of the municipalities of Dolenje, Belokraj and Posavina have finally submitted proposals for changes to social legislation to the National Assembly.  Under the slogan “For children from difficult social backgrounds”, voters’ signatures were collected in municipalities for amendments to four laws, the content of which is particularly discriminatory against Roma, even though Roma are never mentioned in the proposed legislation.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Interview with Lucie Fuková

Published by:

An interview with the commissioner for Roma minority affairs of the Czech Republic. She is being asked what the state is doing to prevent the recurrence of conflicts between Roma and Ukrainians and wether the Commissioner of the Council of Europe right when she claims that the Roma in the Czech Republic face discrimination.

République tchèque Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Czech Republic: Extremism

Published by:

About seventy protesters, around fifty of them Roma, gathered in front of the Government Office for a demonstration called by David Mezei, a very controversial Romano leade. The participants expressed their disapproval of the current government and the presence of Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic. In addition to Mezei, the speakers also included Miroslav Tancoš, the chairman of the Roma Democratic Party, which has suspended its activities, and Denis Novák from the Round Table Alliance.

It is sad to see that some Roma are playing into the hands of extremists following the two attacks in the Czech Republic.

Bulgarie Nouvelles d'Europe de l'est

Bulgaria: Condemnation

Published by:

The Commission for Protection against Discrimination (CPC) imposed a fine of BGN 1,000 and a mandatory order on the extreme-right Political Party “VMRO-Bulgarian National Movement” (VMRO-BND) not to allow publications that create prejudice against certain Romas. The complaint was submitted by the Romani activist Liliana Kovacheva through lawyer Diana Dragieva from the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC). As a Bulgarian Roma citizen, Kovacheva felt rightly discriminated against because of content on the official website of the VMRO-BND. In the section “The Gypsy Question there are hundreds of publications that suggest criminal tendencies and criminal behavior of all Roma. The articles abound with hate speech, impose the feeling of opposition between Bulgarians and Roma.

Nouvelles d'Europe de l'ouest Portugal

Portugal and Chega

Published by:

In Portugal, the Chega! (That’s enough!), which currently has 12 seats in parliament, is now considered the third political force in the country, with 13.2% of the voting intentions in the latest polls. Although none of its members currently sit in the European Parliament, the party could gain three to four.

In a similar vein to neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, Chega’s ideology is described as anti-immigrant, anti-women, anti-LGBTQIA+, anti-Roma, anti-Muslim and conspiratorial, according to a report by the Global Project Against hate and extremism (Global Project against Hate and Extremism, GPAHE).

rroma.org
fr_FRFR
en_GBEN de_DEDE fr_FRFR