About Roma people's human rights in Europe – The black hole of the European Union's liberalism

by Adrienn Kácsor

Let me start with a personal announcement: me, I deeply believe that there is no such thing as 'gypsy crime'. Just to make it clear: 'gypsy crime' in Europe means 'crime committed by gypsy people' – the word is the worst stereotype in itself, as far as I am concerned.

How lucky I am that I am writing these sentences out of Hungary. Otherwise, I might be sent to prison for three years.

According to a proposal for new regulations discussed in the Hungarian Parliament last week, from three to five years spent in prison would be the acceptable punishment for those who publicly deny the existence of 'gypsy crime'.

The proposal was made by the members of the Hungarian far-right party named Jobbik. The radical politicians gave a clear explanation for their proposition:“no one should lie in public”.

This totally absurd announcement was based on the result of a public poll conducted by the Hungarian Perspective Institution ('Nézőpont Intézet'): it turned out that “89% of the Hungarian population think that gypsy crime is an existing problem in Hungary”.

In this sense, János Volner, one of the Jobbik politicians said that they would like to create “open and sincere public discourse on the serious social issue of gypsy people, just as they did it in France”, referring to France's removal of the Roma camps.

Unfortunately, one could expect that the party 'Jobbik' would continue its radical actions, once it enters the Parliament. (Actually, Jobbik has become the member of the Parliament this May, due to the results of the 2010 elections, as the third biggest party, with more than 12% of the votes received). But no one might expect them to go this far. I mean, “creating open and sincere public discourse” by announcing that committing crime is a kind of behavior based on one's ethnicity – in liberal countries this is simply called racism, not sincerity.

The reactions to this proposal have been mixed in the last few days. The Hungarian left party immediately said that Jobbik politicians should be sent to prison. The prime minister Viktor Orbán was only smiling on the proposal, not really considering it to be serious.

But this is completely serious, as I feel: even if the proposal is rejected in the Parliament, as one could hope, the fact that this proposition already managed to reach the Parliament and the public discourse – this is something to take seriously, not to smile on it.

And then rather not speak about the result of the poll, that almost 90% of the asked believe that 'gypsy crime' exists. This is really time for Hungarian politicians and intellectuals to start debating over how to solve this serious issue.

A couple of days ago, EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding in a BBC interview said that 'it is not about a minor question. It is not one sentence in a law which is not appropriate or so on and so forth. Here we touch upon the fundamental values on which Europe has been built since World War II: respect for the individual and non-discrimination against racial, ethnic or national groups”, speaking about how French authorities have deported Roma people from France.

I must agree with Viviane Reding's opinion.

It really seems that Roma people are not taken into account in Europe, when speaking about individual's rights...