New flag on Budapest’s City Hall: do you recognize it?

Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony on Saturday said his administration had displayed the Romani flag on the facade of City Hall in honour of International Romani Day.

International Romani Day raises awareness of both the Roma community’s rich culture and difficult social situation, Karácsony said on Facebook. “Budapest belongs to everyone, which means it is also home to all of our Roma compatriots,” the mayor said, adding that “unfortunately, many of them live in deep poverty.” “Our job is to help them break out of it and make sure they do not suffer any discrimination at job interviews, when renting a flat or on the tram,” Karácsony said. “The government has a job to do, the city has a job to do and so does everyone”, MTI wrote.

“The advancement of our Roma compatriots is in our shared interest,” he said. Prejudices are always based on ignorance, the mayor said, underlining the importance of being open to learning about the Roma community’s history, culture and values. The Budapest city council devotes special attention to helping the city’s Roma community, Karácsony said, noting that the Romano Kher Roma cultural centre will soon move to a new refurbished location. He also highlighted a mentoring scheme launched by the city council aimed at helping young Roma people pursue a career in civil service and the Romaversitas Foundation’s leadership training programme.

Opposition parties mark International Romani Day

The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) and LMP parties on Saturday marked International Romani Day, hailing Roma culture and calling for respect for the community. Roma culture has been making Hungarian and European cultures, languages and history more diverse for centuries, DK said in a statement, calling it a “universal and inalienable component of Hungarian and European culture”. DK called for making room for the Roma community to express its dual identity with pride.

“We cannot build a welcoming society, we cannot tear down institutionalised anti-Roma sentiment without mutually respecting each other, which requires that we view the Roma people as assets and a part of our society and social heritage,” the party said. LMP’s parliamentary group said all ethnic groups were equal parts of the Hungarian nation, emphasising that the identity of the Roma community made Hungary stronger and richer. The government has a duty to do everything in its power to give the Roma people a chance to preserve their culture and to ensure equality for the community in all aspects of life, they said in a statement. International Romani Day “reminds us that we must accept each other’s differences and respect dignity in every single person, because everyone is equally valuable and important”, LMP said.

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2 Comments

A. Tendon says:

10/04/2023 at 08:19

The Hungarian left is copying the US minority playbook. In the mid-1990s, a group of Gypsy activists was invited to the US. They toured an Indian reservation and the MLK Centre for nonviolent social change. We know what follows.
Michael Steiner says:

10/04/2023 at 10:39

Ah, good not-so-old identity politics game. Study after study after study, conducted by every source with every bias imaginable as well as without any bias at all, concluded that the problems besetting the gypsy community is only in (minor) part caused by “discrimination.” Their inherent cultural values are the root of most of their difficulties. They include child marriage, shunning education, high birthrate, and–worst of all–the parents not changing their ways so their kids have a better life than they did. Silly virtue signalling by flying flags and spending taxpayers’ money on building “community centers” is not going to solve a single one of the antecedent issues. How’s this for an idea: Train them to be truck drivers so we don’t have to import those from India, as was reported here a few weeks back!