4 Roma and 1 Romni were elected to the Hungarian parliament last Sunday. Four of the five are members of the new Tisza Party of Peter Magyar.
Two good blog articles to understand the upcoming Hungarian elections and whether Viktor Orban manages to stay in power.
A very interesting article from the New York Times on the weight of the Roma vote in the upcoming elections in Hungary. Orban has relied on vote from Roma to remain in power, all while jsapping their rights.
Next Sunday’s elections are critical for Orban. And vote buying or at least influencing is ripe.
A “special operation” by the Bulgarian police in Tasrevo in a Roma neighbourhood resulted in several compl,aints being lodged against the police for viloences. The mayor of the town, Marin Kirov, reacted:
“My position as mayor and citizen of Tsarevo municipality regarding the actions this morning on our territory: It is a pity, we are receiving data about violence against people sleeping in their beds during the action this morning.
That’s right – they are neither running nor hiding, they are sleeping in their beds. They say they were gypsies, excuse me, it’s 2026 and we are in one of the few municipalities with an integrated Roma ethnic group and without significant crime related to gypsies. These are people, for God’s sake!? Nothing was found in them, nothing related to the elections.
We are obviously talking about excessive force and inadequate repression and an operation, planned and implemented in an absolutely insane way, and in Tsarevo – a modern tourist municipality, we depend on this livelihood, on a good image, on the peace between people. We also fully support the local police from tourism with cars, fuel, drug test cassettes and a huge resource for seconded police officers and repairs. And not only the local police, but also regional units of the services.
What are they achieving with these actions? Dozens of jeeps, over 50 berets and uniforms for a few sleeping people from the gypsy ethnic group? For years, they have been working on old signals against the same people who have never been caught or convicted of election crimes.
Are they trying to rewrite the election result? Be patient, they will see in two weeks, Tsarevo is developing and people appreciate it!
The Roma vote is not decisive here, and this aggression is inadequate and will have its own civil resistance in the elections.
Attempts to suggest that a small group determines the agenda and the election result are not based on facts in reality.
Take a walk in Tsarevo – here we earn trust with enormous effort and a lot of work!”
On Saturday 28th March, an estimated 1000 supporters of Mi Hazánk Mozgalom (Our Homeland Movement), and members of its affiliate paramilitary groups marched in the village of Kálló, in what the party’s chairman László Toroczkai billed as a ‘pro-order’ demonstration.
They had already done so on March 13th, but were prevented by the villagers. Now they were protected by the police.
And in another fact, the Minister of Construction and Transport, Kjanos Lázár, held a forum in Úrhida, Fejér County, where his usual arguments about protecting sovereignty eventually led to the conclusion that Fidesz should cooperate with Mi Hazánk in this regard.
Bad.
The Chairman of the National Assembly of the BSP Krum Zarkov met with residents of the Roma quarter “Komluka“ in Sliven. Dozens of questions, remarks from the field and the active participation of people turned the conversation into an open and tense dialogue on the real problems of the community.
Police raided a financial house (sic.) in the Roma neighbourhood of Fakulteta in Sofia, where a list of names and amounts was found besides six thousand Euros in cash. The police is suspecting election bribery and arrested several persons among which Kiril Kirilov, a know murky figure often called the Japanese.
The DW article had repercussions: Accusations of vote buying, new registration of voters, and also, Roma Sherifs (sic.) who promised Vučić that 90% pf the Roma will vote for his list.
Bad.
A reportage by Deutsche Welle ahead of the local elections in ten municipalities in Serbia. The DW team was in one of them, in Bor, where there is a lot of talk about the bought votes of local Roma and a sudden increase in the population before the elections.
Promises are made to Roma before those elections, promises seldom held …
An interview of candidates to the Slovenian elections on the Roma problem (along other topics).
The Roma issue in southeastern Slovenia remains one of the most pressing issues in the region, which has been causing social tensions, security incidents and differences in the development of individual areas for many years. That is why, before Sunday’s parliamentary elections, Social Democrats candidates from Dolenjska were asked about this issue and presented their views on the recently adopted Šutar’s law. Their answers show that they see the law as a necessary step, but they also warn of its limitations and risks.
Bad.
This week, the only articles on Roma concern the municipal elections being held in France on March 12th and all of these articles concern Roma in Nantes who are trying to have a say in those elections. Apparently, they massively registered to vote (as they can in France). The only other articles are a squat being closed in Lyon, and one from the extreme right Breizh Info on a so called reportage in the largest slum in France.
After a complaint by the ERRC, the Montenegrin Onbudsman wants to reform the registration rules that he sees as biased against Roma.
The portrayal of migrants in Toni Okamura’s SPD election campaign is similar to how members of other races and social classes were portrayed in Nazi and communist propaganda, the Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) said. In today’s decision, it was critical of the SPD campaign, but it still rejected the complaint of a voter from the Central Bohemian Region. It failed to prove grossly influencing the election result, which is a condition for possible court intervention. According to the NSS, the SPD campaign speaks more about the movement itself, other parties could have reacted to it and voters ultimately made up their own minds. The decision is temporarily available on the official noticeboard.
A comment by a romano activist, Michal Mižigar on the support of many Roma, among which some prominent ones for the extreme right motorist party and his top representative Philip Turek.
A commentary on the outcome of the recent elections in Czechia. Babiš’ party, while coming first in the elections doesn’t have enough seats to form a government. His possibility is to align and enter a coalition with extreme right parties which are profoundly racist. In addition, they are pro-Russian and anti-EU, which the majority of the Czech electorate is not.
According to the findings of Romea.cz, at least sixteen Romani men and women ran for the Chamber of Deputies in this year’s elections, which represents the highest number since the beginning of systematic monitoring of Romani participation in elections. Nevertheless, none of them managed to penetrate the lower chamber of Parliament. The most successful Roma candidate was Josef Tokár (SPOLU, South Bohemia), who received 1,335 preferential votes. Jaroslav Miko (STAN, Prague) finished in second place with 818 votes, and Milan Sýs (Stačilo!, Pardubice Region) took the imaginary third place, who received 598 votes.
In Pazardzhik, Bulgaria, there are local mayoral elections. Apparently, the DPS party has not been doing well recently in the town, but their candidate is “activating” the Roma vote. Whatever this means, as in Bulgaria, there have been allegations of vote buying among Roma since a long time.
Czech Roma are becoming more interested in elections every year. According to estimates, about 150 thousand of them have the opportunity to vote. The prevailing opinion in society is that many mainly vote for Andrej Babiš’s ANO party, but Ľavica is also popular.
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