{"id":1198,"date":"2014-11-19T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-19T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/19-11-2014-luc-jousse-sentenced-for-racist-remarks-against-rroma\/"},"modified":"2022-07-27T07:54:07","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T06:54:07","slug":"19-11-2014-luc-jousse-sentenced-for-racist-remarks-against-rroma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/19-11-2014-luc-jousse-sentenced-for-racist-remarks-against-rroma\/","title":{"rendered":"19.11.2014 Luc Jousse sentenced for racist remarks against Rroma"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mayor of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRoquebrune-sur-Argens, Luc Jousse, was sentenced by the Draguignan\u2019s criminal \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcourt to a fine of 10,000 Euros and a year of non-eligibility. At a public \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmeeting in November 2013, the UMP politician had made the crude remark that the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfire brigade arrived too early during a fire in a local Rroma settlement: \u201cIt was in the course of this event, which \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twas recorded by a participant and disseminated by Mediapart, that the mayor denounced \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthefts and the cause of a fire, which he attributed to the Roma. \u201cNonetheless I \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twould like to remind you that the travellers, I mean, the Roma, have set a fire \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnine times\u201d, begins Luc Jousse. He continues:<\/em> \u201cThe last one, they set themselves. You know what they do: they steal \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\telectric cables and afterwards they burn them to get the copper, and they set \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfire in their own caravans! A gag! It\u2019s almost a shame that someone called the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfire brigade so soon!\u201d<\/em> (Le Parisien 2014). In addition to his racist \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tremarks against the Rroma, Jousse falsely equates the Rroma with travellers, most \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma are however sedentary. Many travellers in Europe \u2013 such as the Irish \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTravellers or the Yeniche \u2013 originated in Europe itself. Luc Jousse is not \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\talone in his racist remarks against Rroma. Numerous French mayors and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpoliticians have attracted attention in recent years by racist remarks about \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma. Some were sentenced to mild fines, others were completely acquitted, based \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ton arguments on the freedom of expression. Manual Valls, for instance, who \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpresented the Rroma as asocial and incompatible with French culture was \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tacquitted. In the French public, Rroma are equated with the 15,000 to 20,000 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma, who live in illegal settlements. The 100,000 to 500,000 Rroma, that have \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbeing living integrated in France since generations, are continuously ignored \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(compare Miguet 2014, Le Monde 2014). <\/p>\n