Fundación Secretariado Gitano

We call on the President of the European Parliament to remedy the damage caused to the dignity of the Roma community [editar]

• International
• Equal treatment

The Fundación Secretariado Gitano has sent a letter to the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, asking for a quick, forceful and exemplary reaction from the European Parliament to punish Italian MEP Mara Bizotto for discriminatory statements towards the Roma community, repair the damage caused to the dignity as well as the formal recognition of the European Parliament of the 8^th of April as the International Roma Day.

The FSG has communicated to the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, the deep concern regarding the speech made on the 6^th of April at the European Parliament, by MEP Mara Bizotto, representative of the Italian political party Lega Nord (Northern League):

“In the face of a lie about inclusion, the European Union spends millions of euros on the wrong inclusion; millions of euros which are just wasted, because Roma inclusion is practically zero.  It is the Roma who don’t want to integrate. This money should be spent on our citizens, our unemployed people, our poor families. Come and look at the situation in Italy, how unintegrated the Roma are… talk to mayors, talk to the police, to citizens who live near Roma camps. Just look at the newspapers, television every day – you will see an avalanche of news about the problems caused for our citizens by Roma. And I will not allow you to say that we’re racist; we simply aren’t. We’re talking about real events which take place every day. Rather than celebrating an international Roma memorial day, we should actually be having a day commemorating our own citizens who suffer constantly from the problems caused by Roma.”

We can only draw the following conclusions from her remarks:

• Such declarations violate European rules on equality and anti-discrimination, namely Article 2 of the Lisbon Treaty of 13 December 2007, Article 1 and 21 of the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights, Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000, implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin, and various Resolutions of the European Parliament in this area.
• This kind of discriminatory message helps to perpetuate the stereotypical, negative image of Roma people and only serves to incite the rejection, contempt, animosity and, likely, hate of Roma.
• Her message is an attack on social cohesion, by verbalising and intensifying the division of society, as if Roma people were not included among European citizens.

Accordingly, it is our sincere request that, as President of the European Parliament, you proceed to:

• Sanction and make an example of Ms. Mara Bizzotto, representative of the Italian political party Lega Nord, for her discriminatory speech.
• Issue a statement on behalf of the European Parliament, similarly to that issued following the misogynistic remarks of MEP Korwin-Mikke, speaking out against anti-Roma discrimination by MEPs, and in which you issue an apology to the Roma community and all those who have been offended by Ms. Bizzotto’s remarks.
• Arrange a Declaration by the European Parliament recognising 8 April as International Roma Day, advocating the recognition of the cultural identity of this people, their hymn and their flag, such as that recently issued by the Spanish parliament in a green paper that received unanimous support from all parliamentary groups.

Further still, we believe that certain measures are needed to ensure that this incident is not repeated, and to ensure that representatives of political parties act responsible when addressing issues related to race, ethnic and national origin and religion, pursuant to the terms of the Charter of European Political Parties for a Non-Racist Society, signed on 25 September 2003^[1].

What this MEP does is associate the Roma population with crime, uncertainty and unwillingness to be included, painting them as people with no interest in integrating.  Her attack on the Roma population is incompatible with the values and principles underlying the constitution of the European Union, namely pluralism, tolerance, social peace and non-discrimination.

We believe that freedom of expression is one of the core pillars of a democratic society and a fundamental right that deserves safeguarding. However, as the ECHR has already ruled in Féret v. Belgium^[2], the right to freedom of expression is not an absolute right and must be curtailed when impacting on other fundamental rights protected in our constitutions, such as the right to equality, human dignity and honour of a given group. 

In the present case, the right of freedom of expression has no safe harbour in the dissemination of outrageous and offensive statements targeted at the Roma population.  This is why our institutions must put all possible mechanisms in place to prevent such racist public speech that advocates the discrimination of people due to their ethnicity. Indeed, Recommendation no. 97 of the Committee of Ministers of the European Council on Hate Speech establishes that “public expression with a racist aim, which deprecates or denigrates a grouping of persons on the grounds of their race, colour, language, religion, nationality or national or ethnic origin must be supressed”.

It is also highly objectionable that our democratic institutions are used to spread offensive and discriminatory ideas aimed at the Roma population.  Steps must be taken to prevent the European Parliament being exploited as a channel for hate speech and discrimination. Political parties and their elected officials have a duty to make proposals and foster public debate on social and human issues, but must never resort to inciting the discrimination of a people by using false, offensive and humiliating messages that only fuel intolerance of select groups such as Roma. Here we must invoke article 11.3 of the Regulation of the European Parliament: “Members’ conduct shall be characterised by mutual respect, be based on the values and principles laid down in the Treaties, and particularly in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and respect the dignity of Parliament”.

We congratulate on the reaction of repulse of some MEPs among them the Spanish women Iratxe García and Marina Albiol, to the declarations of the Italian MEP Mara Bizotto

If we want to consolidate and move forward in a single Europe for all that is cohesive and discrimination-free, these such measures are absolutely necessary.

[1] European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance, Charter of European Political Parties for a Non-Racist Society.

[2] ECHRR Féret v. Belgium (15615/07), of 16 July 2009