“Aggressive
Stinky Gypsy Woman”
-
Romanian President Traian Basescu, 19 May 2007
25
October 2006. In its country Report on
Romania
, the European Commission points to “institutional racism against
Roma in
Romania
.” The Commission also asks Romanian authorities to “demonstrate, at all levels, that the country applies a zero-tolerance
policy on racism against Roma or against any other minority or
group and that this policy is effectively implemented.”
09
April 2007. Adrian Cioroianu becomes minister of foreign affairs,
despite strong opposition from President Basescu. In February 2006,
Cioroianu had implied that Roma in one of
Bucharest
’s neighbourhoods, Chitila, smell bad and are criminals. His
article defending the eviction of convicted Roma accused Romani
women of starting a fight that triggered police action, as the
police “tried to protect the children from their own irresponsible
parents.” He also accused the Romanian police of being too soft on
the Roma. Cioroianu used the strong pejorative “pirande” to
refer to Romani women; a word many Roma consider similar to the term
“nigger.” In the same article, Cioroianu spoke out against the
Hungarians, who, he implied, have a hidden interest in making
visible the issues faced by Roma in
Romania
in an attempt to prevent
Romania
’s accession to the EU. Cioroianu is one of the best-known
intellectuals in
Romania
, a former Euro-observer, who writes regularly for Dilema, a
well-regarded intellectual magazine
12
May 2007. Former Romanian King Mihai, speaking on Romanian TV about
his disgust with the political crisis in
Romania
, describes the situation as “gypsy-like.”
19
May 2007. Romanian President Traian Basescu, voted back to his
position by an overwhelming majority (74%), is recorded talking to
his wife about a Romanian journalist from a TV station owned by a
political opponent, saying: “...how aggressive this stinky gypsy
woman was…”.The
conversation was recorded on the phone Basescu took from the
journalist.
21
May 2007. Romani Criss, a NGO defending the rights of Roma, files a
complaint against the Romanian President for discriminatory language
to the National Council Against Discrimination. The Romanian Press
explodes and TV stations broadcast numerous talk shows about
discrimination in
Romania
. Basescu’s political adversaries some of them known for their
xenophobic and racist views use the opportunity to attack the
President.The Romanian National Council against Discrimination (NCD)
invites Basescu to explain the incident, the next day.
22
May 2007. Basescu
chooses not to accept the NCD’s invitation and sends his advisor
and his lawyer to the hearing instead. They argue that the recording
was a private conversation. The NCD gives Basescu a public
admonition.
23
May 2007. Basescu issues a statement saying that he will attack the
decision of the NCD in court, and in addition, he accuses the NCD of
employing approaches similar to the communist secret services. It is
to be noted that 6 out of 8 directors of the NCD were under 15 years
of age at the fall of Communism, while Basescu himself held a high
professional rank during the Communist era and was a member of the
Romanian Communist Party.
25
May 2007, AM. The Romanian Football Federation, together with
the NCD and the European Roma Grassroots Organisation hold a press
conference announcing a new event in their ongoing campaign against
racism and violence in football, a campaign which has already lasted
one year. The event chosen for the campaign (long before the
incident on the 19th) is to be the Romanian Cup Final game held on
May 26.
25
May 2007, PM. During a TV talk show presenting the campaign on
B1TV, a caller says, live on air, that “Jews are ok but Gypsies,
whatever they do and however much they wash, will always stink like
Gypsies.”
26
May 2007. President Basescu confirms his presence at the football
match for the evening. With one hour to go before the game starts,
Mediafax (Romanian news agency) reports that the campaigned has been
cancelled due to pressure from the President.
28
May 2007. President Basescu cancels the highest
Romania
distinction, the Romanian Star, granted to extremist leader and
“court poet” of Ceausescu, Vadim Tudor. The distinction was
granted to him by the former Romanian president Ion Iliescu (second
in command of the main opposition party currently).
30
May 2007. A study monitoring comments posted on the Internet
between 18 and 26 May shows a significant increase of extreme
anti-Roma messages calling for killing of the Gypsies, mass
expulsion or forced encampment.
If
we go back in history, we can see that anyone can say anything about
the Roma, without fear. Edward Said believed that Gypsies are the
only group about which anything could be said “without challenge
or demurral.”
22
August 1998. Senator Corneliu Vadim Tudor: “We are not interested
in what gypsies want. All this [group] should be put in jail. There
is no other solution.”
4
December 1999. General Mircea Bot, at that time Chief of the
Bucharest Police and a strong candidate for a ministerial position
within the Romanian government:
“Gypsies are grouped around well-known
criminals…until now the Gypsy people were used to stealing,
robbing…[today] they are focused on financial criminal acts
...there are Gypsies who are born criminals [who] do not know how to
do anything other than to commit criminal acts.”
November
2000. Corneliu Vadim Tudor, prior to elections which demonstrated
that he was the second most popular politician in Romania: “The
typology of the Gypsy Mafia…Always attacking in packs, controlling
the markets and not raping their own children and parents because
they are busy raping ours...”
2001.
Ion Bulucea, mayor of
Craiova
, the largest city in southwest
Romania
: “Those stinky Gypsies should be exterminated,” as reported by
Medicine sans Frontieres (2003). This statement followed the scandal
and strong reaction from the Council of Europe to a plan proposed by
the mayor of
Piatra Neamt
,
Romania
, Ion Rotaru. Mayor Rotaru wanted to create a concentration camp for
Roma.
19
May 2003. Traian Basescu, at that time mayor of
Bucharest
, reportedly said “[Gypsies] are nomads and nobody can do anything
about them...they will bring their horses into the flats and there
any attempt to civilize them ends...we should build special camps
and keep them outside our cities,” according to the daily Cotidianul.
4
May 2005. Current Mayor of
Craiova
, for the newspaper Gardianul:
“I pee on them, those mother f… Gypsy jerks and hooligans.”
This local politician, who was elected on the list of the ruling
Social Democrat Party, made it clear in less than four hundred words
what he thinks of Roma: “stinky ugly gypsies,” “shits,”
“jerks,” “dirty,” “hooligans.” He described a “war”
against gypsies and expressed his wish to deport them from his city.
In 2005, the Mayor was fined twice for racist speech against Roma
and blacks. In 2006, he joined the main Romanian party (of President
Basescu) and received the highest distinction offered by the
Romanian Orthodox church.
None
of this anti-Roma discourse led to anything except an increase in
the popularity of the speaker. None of those have ever apologised
for their words. The reaction of the political class, civil society
and European Union did nothing but proved that
Europe
could have a much better chance to be united in anti-Gypsyism than
its beautiful but empty “unity in diversity” slogan.
The
2007 European Year of Equal Opportunities is taking place in
Romania
under the auspices of the Romanian presidency. In the last year the
Romanian President has been repeatedly accused of sexism.
