Roma slavery is debated in the Romanian Parliament

Slave auction poster (Romanian, 1852)

This week the Romanian Parliament had an interesting debate that was left unnoticed by mainstream media. Only TVR had a short report on the topic. Nicolae Paun, the representative of the Roma community, proposed the commemoration of the abolition of slavery in Romania on the 20th of February every year and also the inclusion of the subject of Roma slavery in history books for all schools. Roma people were slaves until 1856 in Wallachia and Moldavia, a peculiar case in the region. The main owner was the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Romanian Senators reacted violently to such claims this week. Using arguments such as there were no slaves, they were not enslaved by any Romanians or Europeans, they asked to be slaves (Puiu Hasotti, Romanian Liberal Party) or they were not Roma, they were gypsies and this commemoration cannot be applied for Roma (Radu Berceanu, Democrat Liberal Party), senators managed to reject the project. A simple check of Wikipedia on slavery in Romania would have told them what racist fiction they are creating (not to mention a decent check of any studies on this historical topic). Their important decisions with material effects are supported by outrageous claims. Afterwards, their rhetoric becomes historical proof for exclusion, white privilege and slavery denial. 

What they also manage to do was to bring into discussion the usage of the word Tzigan (which ironically meant also slave in Romanian) and the rejection of the word Roma. As they explained, Roma was imposed by a sort of blackmail by the European institutions for Romanian accession to EU. And the corrupted and unpatriotic politicians of the day (which are not from their party, of course) accepted such rules without a blink. The usage of the word Tzigan is highly charged these days with a nationalist/racist rhetoric (dark skinned Roma people are killing the Romanian good reputation/whiteness in the West by using a similar name) and is very present in the media, everyday discussions and politics, obviously. 

This important debate in the Parliament was not presented by the media and it was not criticized in any way. I see it as a perfect example of well institutionalized racism that doesn't surprise anyone or bring any protest. Nicolae Paun should not be discouraged and he should persist in his lonely struggles in the Romanian Parliament (he is actually the only Roma representative in the Parliament for the 2 million Roma living in Romania).

Send him an email to show your support at this address:

npaun@cdep.ro