Roma

Victims of Roma Holocaust commemorated in Budapest

Victims of Roma Holocaust commemorated in Budapest

The Roma murdered during the second world war were commemorated in Budapest on the Roma Holocaust Memorial Day on Friday, at an event held at the Holocaust Memorial Centre.

Attila Sztojka, the government commissioner responsible for relations with the Roma minority, said that on August 2, 1944, 80 years ago, thousands of people became victims of Nazi ideology. He added that an unprecedented resistance started at the Auschwith-Birkenau concentration camp on May 16, a day which has been marked since 2007 as Romani Resistance Day.

Victims of Roma Holocaust commemorated in Budapest
Photo: MTI

“We must learn from historic tragedies. We are not obliged to be fashionable on this matter, but we do have an obligation to preserve the values of the created world,” he said.

“In real normality, there is no difference between Roma and non-Roma people,” Sztojka said.

Andor Grósz, the head of the board of the Holocaust Museum and leader of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (Mazsihisz), said more than 4,000 people were killed on this day in the Roma camp in Auschwitz. The date is also “a symbol when we remember all the other victims of the Roma holocaust, wherever they were killed,” he said.

The Council of Europe declared August 2 Roma Holocaust Memorial Day in 1972.

Read also:

  • International Holocaust Remembrance Day marked in Budapest

International Roma Song Day to be held in Hungary and five other countries

International Roma Song Day in Hungary

The International Roma Song Day is being held for the third time this year in fifteen venues across six countries on 8 August, and this year celebrates all kinds of styles from flamenco, Balkan brass bands, to gypsy jazz.

Mihály “Mazsi” Rostás, the event’s artistic director, told a press conference the day will celebrate the diversity of Gypsy music with legendary Roma and non-Roma artists, with 260 performers giving concerts in ten Hungarian cities and five foreign locations. The longer term aim is to bring the event to every EU member state, he added.

Mónika Lakatos, winner of the Kossuth and Womex Lifetime Achievement Awards, is the face of the event.

Concerts will be held in the courtyard of the Benczur House in Budapest, while other Hungarian venues include Százhalombatta, Szentendre, Veszprém and Pécs.

Roma Song Day will also be celebrated in Jerez de la Frontera in Spain, Sturovo (Párkány) in Slovakia, Târgu Mureș (Marosvásárhely) in Romania, Burgas in Bulgaria and the German capital, Berlin.

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Hungarian Roma leader goes to prison

A Budapest Appeals Court on Thursday ordered in a biding ruling that János Agócs, the former head of the National Roma Self-government (ORÖ), serve his four-year term in a low-security correctional facility, and increased the fine imposed on him to 1 million forints (EUR 2,500).

Agócs was detained on corruption charges in September 2022. He was accused of offering his own position to lesser officials willing to pay 30 million forints for the post in the summer of that year. Agócs’s plan was to make the prospect his deputy, then get him elected head of the body.

The appeals court lowered the security degree of the prison sentence due to Agócs’s deteriorating health.

At the same time, it increased the original fine of 260,000 forints, on the basis of the environmental study showing Agócs’s living conditions as being well above the average.

Read also:

  • Perplexing trends: Fewer Romani but more foreigners in Hungary? – Read more HERE
  • The proportion of gypsy society in Hungary is increasing

Fidesz MEP wants to represent Roma community and the rights of Roma women

Fidesz MEP wants to represent Roma community and the rights of Roma women

Ruling Fidesz’s MEPs work every day to defend the rights and dignity of women and girls, and oppose the “gender ideology” of the leftist and liberal MEPs, Lívia Járóka, an MEP of the party, said on the occasion of International Women’s Day on Friday.

Járóka told MTI in a statement that the European Parliament’s women’s rights and gender equality committee organised a committee meeting on women in sport in collaboration with the national parliaments.

At the meeting, Járóka highlighted the importance of sports programmes for young women when it comes to integration, as well as of the participation of Roma women in politics.

She said sports programmes helped the integration of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, adding that International Women’s Day provided a good opportunity to highlight the challenges faced by women and the difficult situation of Roma women today.

She noted that 39.8 percent of all MEPs are women, and only two of them Roma. Járóka, herself a Roma, underlined the importance of representing the Roma community and the rights of Roma women.

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Fidesz MEP marks Holocaust Remembrance Day in Brussels

lívia járóka brussels holocaust

“Hatred and animosity cannot be a part of our life,” Lívia Járóka, MEP of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz, told a commemoration in Brussels late on Thursday.

The event, hosted by Járóka herself and Iván Tamás Kovács, Hungary’s ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg, was held at the Liszt Institute to mark the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

Referring to Jews and Roma that were found alive when the camp was liberated, Járóka said “to them this day was not only of liberation, it also meant that they would then mourn for decades their lost beloved, and carry on the horrendous memory of people discriminated, deported, and killed because of their skin colour or religion.”

Read also:

“It is a great honour for me that this day is not only marked by the Roma but by majority society, too, ” she said paying tribute to the victims of the Holocaust.

The 2022 census results are out: here are the most important details

The 2022 census results are out here are the most important details
The Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) has revealed the detailed results of the 2022 census, providing interesting data about the knowledge of languages, ethnicity and religion of Hungarians.

Population and Demography

A total of 9,603,634 people live in Hungary. The gender distribution is nearly equal, with 1,000 men for every 1,078 women. The number of people currently employed has increased from 3.9 million to 4.7 million compared to 2011 when the previous census was held. According to 24.hu, Marcell Kovács, the project coordinator of the census, revealed that the decline in the number of marriages is slowing down, with a 12% increase in marriages under the age of 30. Additionally, 73% of women have at least one child.

Knowledge of Foreign Languages

The number of young English speakers has nearly doubled. More than 50% of people in their 20s speak English, ranging from beginner to advanced levels, as highlighted by G7. Overall, around a quarter of the entire population has some level of English knowledge, marking a significant increase compared to 2011 (16%) and 2001 (less than 10%). German is the second most popular language, primarily spoken by people aged between 30 and 39.

Religion and atheism

There has been a large drop in the Catholic population. The question about religion was optional, with 60% volunteering to answer. Among the respondents, 50% identified themselves as Catholic, 16% as members of the Reformed Church, and only 3.1% belonged to the Lutheran Church. The most noticeable change compared to the previous censuses in 2001 and 2011 is the decrease in the number of Catholic people. In 2001, approximately 5 million people claimed to be Catholic, in 2011 it was 3.7 million, and in the last year, it plummeted to 2.9 million. The Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference expressed gratitude to everyone who identified themselves as Catholic, noting that international tendencies are reflected in the census statistics.
The Hungarian Atheist Association criticised the fact that atheist individuals could not mark their status in the “religion” section of the questionnaire, unlike in 2011 when there was a separate option. They turned to the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights who rejected their complaint without investigating the merits, ruling that it was okay that KSH only inquired about the respondents’ religious beliefs. However, as rtl.hu reported, their decision was successfully challenged by the Hungarian Atheist Association: the Metropolitan Court ruled that the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights could not have refused to investigate the complaint and ordered them to conduct a new procedure.

2022 Census on Minorities

There has been a sharp decrease in the Roma population, while the number of Ukrainians has surged. Back in the days, Hungary used to be a multicultural country with multiple minorities, but the Trianon Peace Treaty in 1920 significantly changed the country’s demographics. It is interesting to note that the number of Roma has dropped to slightly more than 200 thousand compared to 2011 when the number was 350 thousand. According to Telex.hu, the Roma population did not actually decrease; many Romas chose not to disclose their origin.
In 2022, more than 142 thousand Germans resided in Hungary, which is around 40 thousand less than 11 years ago. Historically, more German people lived in Hungary, but after the Second World War, many of them were forced to leave the country. The number of Ukrainian people has also considerably risen from 7,396 to 24,609. This increase is not solely attributed to the war between Ukraine and Russia; many Ukrainians had been working in Hungary before Russia’s invasion.
Author: István Hegyesi

Perplexing trends: Fewer Romani but more foreigners in Hungary?

Romani

After examining the Hungarian Central Statistical Office’s data (KSH) regarding the 2022 census, one dichotomy strikingly stands out: the number of Romani has seemingly dropped in comparison to the penultimate census results, while the quantity of foreigners have surged. Does this mean that the Roma population has been on the decline?

Number of Romani in 2011 versus 2022

As Telex reported, almost 315 thousand people identified themselves as Roma in 2011. If we compare this figure to the result of the last census carried out in 2022, we see a striking decline: only 209,909 individuals identified themselves as members of the Roma community. Does this mean that in this 11-years interval almost 105,000 Romani left Hungary? Probably not. The key to this phenomenon might be more obvious than we think.

Read more: Hungary proud on high Roma employment levels

What is behind the “decrease”?

As we have come to the conclusion, it is highly unlikely that this many Romani had left the country in under 11 years. There must be other possible explanations of the aforementioned trend. As Telex points out, the number of respondents who refused to answer nationality-related questions is worryingly high. Although it is impossible to draw any direct conclusions, the fact that Hungary’s leading party coalition opts for a rather nationalist way to approach the ethnicity issue may have influenced the respondents’ answers when filling up the forms. In other words, the majority of ethnic minorities may believe that the government favours Hungarian people over them, whom they deem somewhat privileged in that sense. When it comes to the Roma population, Ágnes Kende sociologist has indicated the following in her article: Romani “are being segregated at school, are having a hard time finding an apartment, are denied to enter clubs (…), one way or another, they are discriminated by the society”. Taking this aspect into consideration, it is not surprising that many Romani try to conceal their identity in the public eye in order not to face any discriminative treatment.

The bright side of the census

Despite the significant setback of the number of Romani who are willing to identify themselves as such, foreigners are becoming more open to answering the census’s questions regarding their nationality. This results in the potential growth of the number of self-identified immigrants. To sum up, we can witness a proliferation of their number in the past 20 years. There are approximately 217 thousand foreigners residing in Hungary, HSCO states. However, the phenomenon in question is quite surprising, taking into account the rather anti-foreigner propaganda of the Fidesz-ruled government. At the same time, we must note that, due to the Ukrainian war, the number of Ukrainians residing in Hungary went through a serious incrementation.

Read more: Foreigners flocking to Hungary: a safe haven for expats?

Hungary proud on high Roma employment levels

Gypsies Roma Hungary

Roma affairs underwent a sea change in 2010 when the government started to create a work-based society in place of a benefits society, the government commissioner for Roma relations said on Friday.

Speaking at a conference organised by the Mária Kopp Institute for Demography and Families (KINCS), Attila Sztojka said Roma had been “the biggest losers” of the change of political system in 1990, most of them having lost their jobs, while government programmes had failed to create jobs at the time. But in 2010 the government introduced a radically new approach by incorporating Roma into an active, work-based society instead of making them the passive recipients of state benefits, he noted. Sztojka said that Hungary is home to the largest Roma workforce in Europe, with the employment level of Roma men at 81 percent, while the European average is 58 percent. For women, this ratio is 44 and 28 percent, respectively, he added.

He said the government would continue to see Roma policy as a question of a resource and to maximise the Roma workforce so that it becomes a player in the economy. The commissioner said fight against poverty was going in the right direction, but EU funds would be highly important to make further gains in this area. Zsofia Nagy-Vargha, the deputy state secretary for youth at the ministry of culture and innovation, highlighted the importance of nurturing talent over the long term, which she called “a richly fruitful investment in the future”.

Attila Sztojka:

Among the government programs, she referred to the National Talent Programme which thousands of young people of Roma origin have been beneficiaries of in the past two years, and mentioning the Snetberger Music Talent Centre in Felsoors in particular, which, she added, helps disadvantaged, talented young people by providing musical training while building a community.

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

Budapest flag

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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Due to “racial segregation”, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Hungary in a case

eu european union hungary flag priority areas

The European Court of Human Rights condemned Hungary in a case related to the educational segregation of the Roma. The court called on the government to come up with a policy that would not allow this practice. 

A Roma student wanted to transfer to a different school

Between 2013 and 2014, the plaintiff of the case, who is of Roma origin, attended a primary school attended exclusively by Roma students, writes MTI. According to the complainant, the curriculum taught at the school was substandard. Less than 10 percent of the students there continued their education. The complainant’s mother applied to the education office to transfer her son to another school that would better accommodate his mild learning difficulties due to hearing loss.

The request was rejected by the Constitutional Court

The mother’s request of switching schools was rejected as the child did not live in the affected school district. According to the plaintiff, the school was only five minutes from his place of residence by public transport. In December 2015, the applicant filed a constitutional complaint, citing his right to non-discriminatory education, but the Hungarian Constitutional Court rejected it. They thought the case did not raise a constitutional issue.

The European Court of Human Rights condemned Hungary

The European Court of Human Rights found that the complainant was “educated in segregated conditions”. Therefore, the state should have been obliged to take steps to eliminate these inequalities and to avoid the perpetuation of discrimination against the Roma. The judgment states that social coexistence free of racial segregation is a fundamental value in democratic societies. To ensure this, integrated education is a key element.

Hungary must pay the plaintiff EUR 7,000 (HUF 2.7 million) as moral damages and an additional EUR 4,537 (HUF 1.7 million) in court costs.

School graduation of Roma women is expected to increase in the future

The number of women of childbearing age is decreasing nationwide. Therefore, fewer children will be born in the next 40 years. This trend is not characteristic of Roma society, in their case the number of women of childbearing age was 155,000 in 2011, which is expected to increase in the future. At the same time, school graduation of Roma women is projected to increase in the future. However, this also means that they will have fewer children and their fertility ratio will decrease. There is a close connection between education and fertility: as the education level increases, the average number of children decreases. Nevertheless, changes in the fertility “behaviour” of Roma women will affect the number of women of childbearing age only 15 years later.

Justice Court Igazság Bíróság Legal Rights
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The proportion of gypsy society in Hungary is increasing

Khamoro Gypsy Dance Group

The proportion of people with “Roma ties” in Hungary may rise from roughly 5.5 percent in 2011 to 9 percent by 2050. A continuously growing, but moderately aging gypsy population in Hungary is projected by the scenarios that were carried out at the Research Institute of Population Studies of the KSH.

The proportion of gypsy society in the Hungarian population is constantly increasing

The authors of the study “Forecasting the Hungarian Roma population until 2050” point out: the country’s population has been decreasing since 1980, and deaths exceed the number of births. In the case of the Roma, however, we can still speak of natural reproduction. This results in the constant proportion growth when it comes to Roma people, writes portfolio.hu. According to the most likely scenario, the number of gypsy-related population is 697 thousand. Two other calculations are 654 thousand and 805 thousand by 2050.

School graduation of gypsy women is expected to increase in the future

The number of women of childbearing age is decreasing nationwide. Therefore, fewer children will be born in the next 40 years. This trend is not characteristic of Roma society, in their case the number of women of childbearing age was 155,000 in 2011, which is expected to increase in the future. At the same time, school graduation of gypsy women is projected to increase in the future. However, this also means that they will have fewer children and their fertility ratio will decrease. There is a close connection between education and fertility: as the education level increases, the average number of children decreases. Nevertheless, changes in the fertility “behavior” of Roma women will affect the number of women of childbearing age only 15 years later.

The proportion of “Roma people” in Hungary is increasing

As Hungary’s population is aging, the proportion of “Roma people” in the total population will increase in all age groups. While the proportion of the elderly exceeded 15 percent in Hungary in 2011, only 5.1 percent of the Roma population belonged to this age group. According to the basic version of the national forecast, this value will rise to 28 percent by 2050, while the proportion of elderly people with “Roma ties” will be only 15.7 percent.

The main reason for this is that the estimated life expectancy at birth increases in their case as well. According to the basic hypothesis, the mortality characteristics of the Roma improve slightly, but their life expectancy at birth rises more slowly than that of the majority of society. The initial five-year lag between Roma and non-Roma increases to 7 years by the end of the period. It increases from 75.0 to 78.4 years for women and from 66.8 to 72.9 years for men.

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Fidesz MEP: we must learn from the Holocaust and reject discrimination

Járóka

Lívia Járóka, an MEP of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz, called it an important task to learn from the horrors of the past and firmly reject any form of discrimination, ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day marked on January 27.

Járóka issued a press statement on Tuesday on the occasion of a commemoration held to pay tribute to the Holocaust’s Roma victims in Brussels. She said that the events of the 1940s in Europe had not been without precedent. Járóka said internal anger accumulating over decades and even centuries had fuelled the violence that eventually culminated in the Holocaust.

However, unjust discrimination, exclusion and persecution based on race, language or other characteristics still exist in many forms today, Járóka said. “Our task is to raise our voices in every situation on every instance when someone is seeking to legitimise violence,” she said, warning that any steps taken towards achieving that goal “can be fatal”.

The chief patrons of the commemoration were Járóka and Iván Tamás Kovács, Hungary’s ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg.

budapest parliament pixabay
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Tributes pour in for jazz pianist Szakcsi Lakatos at funeral

Tributes poured in for Hungarian jazz pianist and composer Béla Szakcsi Lakatos at his final resting place in the Fiumei Street cemetery

Tributes poured in for Hungarian jazz pianist and composer Béla Szakcsi Lakatos at his final resting place in the Fiumei Street cemetery on Tuesday.

The Roma musician and Kossuth and Liszt laureate died on October 2nd at the age of 80, read more here.

State secretary for culture Péter Hoppál in his speech at the funeral ceremony called Szakcsi Lakatos a jazz legend both at home and abroad.

His range extended from classical to contemporary music — spanning the music of Bach, Mozart, Bartók, Ligeti, Eötvös and Kurtag — to jazz improvisations based on Gypsy music, Hoppál said.

President Katalin Novák, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and former President Pál Schmitt also bid farewell to Szakcsi Lakatos at his final resting place.

House of Terror presents exhibition on 1956 Gypsy heroes
Read alsoBudapest’s House of Terror presents exhibition on 1956 Gypsy heroes

Fidesz MEP proposes setting up Roma fund

Járóka

Lívia Járóka, an MEP of ruling Fidesz, has urged EU member states to invest more in supporting and sustaining small and medium-sized firms, and proposed setting up a fund for the Roma in the sector.

“Hungary is performing well in implementing the EU’s Roma Strategy, and we would like more member states to adopt our good practices,” the Roma MEP told MTI after attending the International Roma Leadership and Business Forum in Brussels on Tuesday, a gathering of representatives of EU institutions and Roma organisations which share best practice in promoting the interests of the Roma in the labour market and business sector.

Attila Sztojka, government commissioner for Roma relations, told MTI that Hungary had achieved outstanding results in Roma affairs in the past ten years, and was at the forefront in the EU in this respect. He noted that Roma employment went up by 50 percent during the period.

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Budapest’s House of Terror presents exhibition on 1956 Gypsy heroes

House of Terror presents exhibition on 1956 Gypsy heroes

Budapest’s House of Terror Museum is presenting an exhibition dedicated to “the Hungarian Gypsy heroes of the 1956 revolution”.

Opening the show on Tuesday, Attila Sztojka, the government commissioner for Roma relations, said the issue should not be whether a person is Roma or not, but how they can contribute to the good of the community and strengthen the economy. A common responsibility was to work towards such a future, he said.

Two images of Gypsies — their rich culture and poverty — tend to flash up in people’s minds, he said. But unity achieved since 2010 has given them strength, faith and hope to overcome their hardships, he added.

Stojka cited the prime minister as stressing the importance of narrowing disparities between the mainstream and Gypsies through government-supported programmes.

Meanwhile, the commissioner paid tribute to jazz legend Béla Szakcsi Lakatos, a pianist and composer who died a few days ago.

The exhibition has been mounted by the Public Foundation for the Research of Central and East European History and Society and the government commissioner responsible for Roma relations. The images on display have toured the country at 27 locations so far.

roma holocaust
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Roma leader in Hungary wanted to sell his position for EUR 74,900?

Roma leader Hungary János Agócs

A Budapest district court on Friday ordered that János Agócs, the head of the National Roma Self-government (ORÖ), be taken into custody on suspicion of corruption.

“The Buda Central District Court has ordered the arrest of a man, a senior official in a leading position suspected of having elicited a bribe, for a period of one month, until October 2,” the court’s press office said in a statement.

Agócs was detained on Wednesday. He is believed to have been offering his own position to lesser officials willing to pay 30 million forints (EUR 74,900) for the post in the summer of 2022. Agócs’s plan was to make the prospect his deputy, then he would get him elected head of the body. Agócs has filed a complaint against his detention and rejected the charges.

Agócs János
Read alsoRoma leader detained on suspicion of bribery in Hungary

Roma leader detained on suspicion of bribery in Hungary

Agócs János

János Agócs, head of the National Roma Self-government (ORO), has been detained on suspicion of eliciting a bribe, the regional investigative prosecutor’s office of Budapest told MTI on Thursday.

Agócs is believed to have been offering his own position to lesser officials willing to pay HUF 30 million (EUR 74,900) for the post. Agócs’s plan was to make the prospect his deputy, then he would get him elected head of the body.

Agócs was detained on Wednesday. He has filed a complaint against his detention and rejected the charges.

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Mayor Karácsony: ‘No one should fear because of skin colour, identity, religion’ in Budapest

Budapest’s leadership is working to ensure that nobody in the city should live in fear because of the colour of their skin, their identity or religion, Mayor Gergely Karácsony said on Tuesday, marking the Roma Holocaust Memorial Day.

“On this day, we remember our Roma compatriots who were dragged from their homes and deported to death camps just because of their ethnicity,” Karácsony said on Facebook.

“Diversity and standing together makes Budapest strong,” he said.

“We stand up for those who suffer discrimination even today, because this is the only way to prevent hatred from reemerging,” the mayor said.

The Council of Europe declared August 2 the Roma Holocaust Memorial Day in 1972. Some 3,000 Roma prisoners killed that night in Auschwitz in 1944 are commemorated on that day. About 500,000 Roma are estimated to have been killed in Nazi camps, 23,000 of them in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Hungarian Roma Czech Republic
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