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Roma hunting season set to continue
Le Monde, Paris ^ | 4/6/2011 | Joƫlle Stolz

Posted on 04/07/2011 12:31:12 AM PDT by bruinbirdman

At a time when the EU has called on member states to make greater efforts to integrate Roma living on their territories, Viktor Orbán’s government, which currently holds the presidency of the European Union, continues to turn a blind eye to the ongoing campaign to intimidate "Gypsy criminals" conducted by far-right Magyar groups.


Gyöngyöspata (Hungary), March 12, 2011. Members of Szebb Jövoert surround the house of a Roma family.

At the end of March, paramilitary members of Hungary’s extreme-right Jobbik political party organised several weeks of village patrols to counter “Gypsy criminality” — a worrying demonstration of strength that failed to prompt a reaction from Viktor Orbán’s government. At the same time, the EU called on member states to take concrete action to improve conditions for the 10 to 12 million Roma living in Europe.

Apart from its medieval church, and its wine cellars nestling against the surrounding hillsides, there is not much to distinguish Gyöngyöspata — with its communist era village hall, Coop grocery, muddy Roma ghetto and well-weeded gardens where the first hyacinths are beginning to bloom — from so many other Hungarian villages.

However, last month the events that took place in the village, which is an hour’s drive northeast of Budapest and home to 2,850 inhabitants, may well have a significant bearing on the future of Europe. In an initiative organised by Jobbik (the political party that took 16.8% of the vote in 2010 general elections but whose popularity is now declining in the polls), the far right made Gyöngyöspata the site for a experimental programme to counter "Gypsy criminality," which included more than two weeks of daytime and night-time patrols by militia-men, supported by local people who provided free food and accommodation.

On 6 March, Jobbik’s national leader, MP Gabor Vona, arrived to address a crowd of 1,500 paramilitaries, most of whom were kitted out in the black uniform of Szebb Jövoert ("For a more beautiful future"), an organisation that is covered by the legal umbrella of village self-defence militias. There were also a number of particularly aggressive looking individuals sporting combat fatigues and skinhead haircuts, who were armed with axes, whips and accompanied by pitbulls. When the patrols began, Roma families were too terrified to send their children to school.

In spite of the resemblance between Szebb Jövoert and the Hungarian Guard, a Jobbik-linked militia which organised similar campaigns to intimidate the Roma minority until it was banned by Hungary’s constitutional court in 2009, the police did not intervene. The government led by conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orbán took no notice of the situation until 16 March, when the militias had already left the village.

On 15 March, which is a day of national celebration in Hungary, Mr Orbán gave a speech in Budapest in which he praised the Magyar people’s courageous resistance to the diktats of foreign powers, including the European Union, whose presidency Hungary took over in January of this year — but not a word about Gyöngyöspata.

On the same day, a handful of counter demonstrators led by Aladar Horvath, who heads a well-known Hungarian civic association for Roma rights and freedoms, arrived in Gyöngyöspata. Among them were Pastor Gabor Ivanyi and two MPs from the liberal Green LMP party, (which only obtained 314 votes in the constituency in 2010 general elections, even though there are 6,000 Roma voters in the area). "The overwhelming majority of our votes went to Fidesz” (Mr Orbán’s party, which now has a two-thirds majority in parliament), points out Janos Farkas, the leader of Gyöngyöspata’s 500-strong Roma community, “because he promised us jobs."

A year later, the rate of unemployment in Hungary is as high as ever, while the government has axed family allowances and cut back on funding for "self-governing bodies" for minorities.

Ever since forests were re-privatised in 1992, the Roma have been deprived of the right to gather mushrooms and collect firewood. "In exchange we were promised work cleaning up the forests. Then the owners blocked that idea,” explains Mr Farkas. “But we have been living here for five centuries, our ancestors defended this country against the Turks, we are Hungarians first and Roma second!"

Crime is on the increase in the Hungarian countryside, where residents feel they have been neglected by the authorities. A number of murders have had a major impact on public opinion: they include the 2006 killing of a teacher in Olaszliszka (Northeastern Hunagary) who was lynched in front of his children, when he knocked down a 12-year-old Roma girl. Jobbik has a erected a monument to his memory. However, the 2009 series of Roma murders perpetrated by a group of neo-Nazis, who are now on trial in Budapest, has failed to move the country’s population.

In Gyöngyöspata, the conflict appears to have been prompted by the purchase by the Hungarian Red Cross of number of houses that it intended to use to re-house Roma families who had been left homeless by the floods in 2010. The plan to move Roma families into the centre of the village met with stiff resistence from locals who wrote to Gabor Vona, explains Oszkar Juhasz, the president of the local branch of Jobbik (which obtained 26% of the vote in the constituency in 2010).

Mr Juhasz is a wine-grower and a descendent of one of those low-ranking noble families which were barely better off than the serfs, but which believed themselves to be the lifeblood of Hungary. In the hall of his house, there is a map of country with its pre-1920 borders. For the extreme right, which is obsessed by the historic loss of two-thirds of Hungary’s national territory, the high Roma birth rate is a serious threat: "Since 1898, their numbers have increased by a factor of more than 100,” he says. “We are not racist, but more often than not the policy of Roma integration simply results in lower living standards for non-Roma."

On Saturday 2 April, Oszkar Juhasz put on his black uniform to march in the streets of Hejöszalonta, a village in the Northeast of the country which has a population of 900, alongside other "Hungarian patriots." In a press conference on the previous day, the leader of the Fidesz parliamentary faction, Janos Lazar, raised the question of liberalising gun control laws to facilitate self-defence — a measure that is one of Jobbik’s political demands.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: eu; gypsie; gypsy; hungary; roma

1 posted on 04/07/2011 12:31:13 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
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To: bruinbirdman
Gepard GM6 .50 Caliber Heavy Sniper Rifle
2 posted on 04/07/2011 12:55:01 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
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To: Berlin_Freeper
"The design was inspired by artillery cannons . . . ."

Nifty

yitbos

3 posted on 04/07/2011 2:13:47 AM PDT by bruinbirdman ("Those who control language control minds." -- Ayn Rand)
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To: bruinbirdman

Interesting article. Hadn’t heard anything about this at all. Have been to Hungary though. A beautiful countryside, and I loved Budapest (the old section of the city). Lots of fields filled with sunflowers as a crop, and good Hungarian food. There are some interesting Roman ruins around Budapest, and it was in Hungary that I took my first trip on a boat down part of the Danube. They also have a quite spectacular Parliament building. And there is a fascinating little “artistes” village a short drive out of Budapest. Charming, with quaint shops and winding streets. I sound like a travelogue. Guess I digressed, but thanks for the info about the Roma. They are not well loved throughout Europe, as they do much of the robberies of both tourists and locals. When I was in Italy, some of our group were ripped off by what we believe to have been Roma, by their methods used.


4 posted on 04/07/2011 2:26:11 AM PDT by flaglady47 (When the gov't fears the people, liberty; When the people fear the gov't, tyranny.)
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To: bruinbirdman
Let me get this straight. These Roma wander about, through your backyard if they feel like it, but if someone 'wanders' on to their camp they get beaten senseless, if they live...

Why do these people still exist? Meandering thugs.
5 posted on 04/07/2011 2:31:57 AM PDT by allmost
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To: allmost
"Why do these people still exist? Meandering thugs."

For the same reason meandering thugs exist in this country. In PC lingo, it's called diversity and multiculturalism!!!

6 posted on 04/07/2011 2:39:39 AM PDT by wmileo
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To: allmost
"Meandering thugs"

Reminds one of how the Brits dealt with the original Thuggee in India.

yitbos

7 posted on 04/07/2011 2:42:02 AM PDT by bruinbirdman ("Those who control language control minds." -- Ayn Rand)
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To: wmileo
Just as long as the entire world's collective fault still lays at the ‘white’ man then all is good. I was not aware. Time to go kill myself for the 100th fictitious time for the thousands fictitious sin...
8 posted on 04/07/2011 2:45:50 AM PDT by allmost
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To: allmost

“Why do these people still exist?”

The Nazis tried to eradicate them, with the help of much of the local populations in Central Europe (who regarded them as a plague). They commit a lot of crime in Spain as well; I’ve heard several first-hand stories from relatives (all concerning robberies).


9 posted on 04/07/2011 3:01:02 AM PDT by kearnyirish2
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To: kearnyirish2

Eradication is a nonstarter with me. The sovereign states have an inherent duty to protect their people though.


10 posted on 04/07/2011 3:29:06 AM PDT by allmost
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To: allmost
I have been to Europe exactly one time, and I have been victimized by gypsies exactly one time.

I'd like to vote them off the island.

11 posted on 04/07/2011 5:37:49 AM PDT by I Buried My Guns (Novare Res!)
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To: I Buried My Guns
I've heard variations of that story before. The USA is an absolutely beautiful country. So much to see here. Quite an eclectic range of victimizers to contend with as well. :)
12 posted on 04/07/2011 5:51:01 AM PDT by allmost
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To: I Buried My Guns

You were victimized by gypsies in Europe, in what way?


13 posted on 04/07/2011 6:25:13 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: Ditter
"You were victimized by gypsies in Europe, in what way?

I went to Amsterdam with my now-wife. A lady followed us from the train station all the way to our hotel, about 1 mile. All along the way she was attempting to unzip our rolling suitcase that we were pulling behind us.

I noticed her "all up in our grill" along the way but just assumed that the Europeans had a smaller personal space bubble than Americans. When we got to our hotel we had to be beeped in. The lady was right there behind us STILL. I thought "Wow, what a coincidence, this lady who has been walking with us the whole way is also staying at our hotel!" Yes, I was naive.

Even in the tiny foyer of the hotel, she was trying to steal from our bag. I and the now-wife were completely oblivious to what was happening. Then, a minute later, a plaincothes policeman appeared and told me to go to my room and inspect the bags immediately. I asked why and he said he had been following us the whole way and had seen what the lady was doing. He said she was a gypsy and part of an organized crime gang that did this all the time. Although the officer was very professional and businesslike, when he said the word "gypsy" I could detect disgust in his voice, as if he did not approve of an alien, criminal culture infesting his country.

So anyway, that filthy damn dirty gypsy stole some of our postcards, and was not apprehended that day.

14 posted on 04/07/2011 6:56:46 AM PDT by I Buried My Guns (Novare Res!)
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To: I Buried My Guns

That is quite a story. We have been to Europe many times, mostly on business. We have lost 2 cameras to thieves. The first one was while we were checking in to the hotel. I put the camera on the counter and while we were both standing right there someone slipped up and took it. The other time was when I was sitting in a sidewalk cafe with the camera on the chair next to me. Finished my coffee and the camera was gone. I can’t say they were gypsies or just regular old pick pockets. I have a friend who was pick pocketed while she was in a bank in Europe. She changed some money and put money and her passport in her (big open) purse. When she got out on the sidewalk she checked and both were gone.

I saw some pick pockets at work in New Orleans but I have never been victimized here in the US. Just lucky I guess!


15 posted on 04/07/2011 8:01:39 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: bruinbirdman
What's with the annoying quotation marks around -Gypsy criminality-? Oh, Le Monde.

At a time when the EU has called on member states to make greater efforts to integrate Roma living on their territories

LOL. Good luck with that when the LAST thing the gypsies want is to integrate into society and...like...work and pay taxes and get an education and all that stuff.

16 posted on 04/07/2011 9:36:54 AM PDT by Moltke (Always retaliate first.)
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To: bruinbirdman

Europe has Gypsies, we have Mexicans. Same pestilence.


17 posted on 04/07/2011 12:29:21 PM PDT by TexasRepublic (Socialism is the gospel of envy and the religion of thieves)
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To: allmost
Why do these people still exist?

Because Hitler didn't kill them all.

18 posted on 04/07/2011 12:32:35 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator
Nice tangent, roaming hordes are fine with you, great. I really don't appreciate the deceptive hitler connotation. Protecting people en masse is the primary function of any government. Their sole purpose initially.
19 posted on 04/10/2011 6:24:54 PM PDT by allmost
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