FSG CALLS ON THE PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT TO TAKE ACTIONS TO TACKLE HATE SPEECH BY MEPS AGAINST THE ROMA Community [editar]

The FSG has communicated to the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, the deep concern regarding the continuous discriminating messages from Angel Dzambazki.

The FSG has communicated to the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, the deep concern regarding the continuous discriminating messages from Angel Dzambazki.

The purpose of this letter is to express and remark our profound sadness for the comments made in several occasions by the MEP Angel Dzambazki from the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), against Roma communities and other minority groups, both in his personal Facebook account and also in different public spaces. 

Here you can find some examples:
“The Gypsies are free to kill Bulgarians in domestic disputes. This is part of their lifestyle. That excuses them. This is part of their gypsy uniqueness.”
“…Conveniently taught them not to work and leaves them unpunished for paedophilia, prostitution, drugs and whatever other evil doings you can imagine…”
The spread of Antigypsyism and hate speech on social media but also in public speeches are totally unacceptable coming from a member of the European Parliament (EP) representing EU citizens. We can only draw the following conclusions from his messages; We can only draw the following conclusions from his messages:

- 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 messages helps to perpetuate the stereotypical, negative image of Roma people and only serves to incite the rejection, social exclusion, contempt, animosity and, likely, hate of Roma.
- His messages are an attack on social cohesion, by verbalising and intensifying the division of society, as if Roma people were not Human beings.
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. Belgium4, 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

It is extremely worrying that such comments from a MEP are not isolate cases: last April Ms. Mara Bizzotto, from the Lega Nord had a discriminatory speech during the Plenary of 6 April in the European Parliament, held on the occasion of 8 April, International Roma Day. We also wrote him a letter in this regard.

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.
Such comments should be condemned by all of us, and particularly by the President of the European Parliament. Further still 4 ECHRR Féret v. Belgium (15615/07), of 16 July 2009.

Further still, we believe that certain responses are needed to ensure that these type of messages are 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 20035, whether inside the European Parliament or outside.

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