Romania - 2012
Are there political parties that express racist or xenophobic sentiments/discourse in the form of hate speech or promote an anti-migrant and/or anti-minority agenda?
- Code:
- RED33
- Key Area:
- Political Parties-organisations - Racist & Xenophobic Discourse
- Strand(s):
- Racism
| Short Answer |
We could not identify a party which assumes an anti-migrant/anti-minority agenda. Reports do however speak of extremist parties or parties spreading racial stereotyping and hate speech. |
| Qualitative Info |
The US Department of State 2010 Human Rights report speaks of the publications of the “extreme nationalist PRM [Greater Romania Party] headed by Corneliu Vadim Tudor”, which “continued to carry statements and articles containing strong anti-Semitic attacks”. It also mentions that: “On June 15th, on the 121st anniversary of the death of national poet Mihai Eminescu, greater Romania Party (PRM) Secretary General Gheorghe Funar stated that Eminescu was killed by Jews who did not like his political writing and poems. He added that a Jewish doctor poisoned the poet with mercury. The executive director of the National Institute to Study the Romanian holocaust Elie Wiesel labeled the statement anti-Semitic and underscored that Funar did not offer any evidence to support his allegations.”[1] Mr Vadim Tudor also, in previous years, made statements concerning the Roma and LGBT which were considered discriminatory by the National Council for Combating Discrimination [2] [3], and the Council was seized for anti-Hungarian statements made by Mr. Tudor and Mr Funar – also member of PRM during debates on the statute of national minorities in Parliament in 2005 (the results of the NCCD deliberations are not publicly available). [4] The UN Committee on the Elimination Racial Discrimination, in its Concluding Observations with regards to Romania, stated that: “the Committee is concerned at reports of the spread of racial stereotyping and hate-speech aimed at persons belonging to minorities, particularly Roma, by certain publications, media outlets, political parties, and certain politicians (arts. 4, 5 and 6)” and recommended that Romania “take effective measures to punish the publications, media outlets, political parties and politicians guilty of such behaviour.” [5] As reported elsewhere in RED, highest level politicians, accross mainstream parties, have made discriminatory statements especially regarding the Roma, with a worrying frequency in the past five years. Sources:
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| Represented in government/parliament? | |
| Groups affected/interested | Roma & Travelers, Ethnic minorities, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, National minorities |
| Type (R/D) | Anti-semitism, Anti-roma/zinghanophobia, Nationalism, Homophobia |
| Key socio-economic / Institutional Areas | Political discourse -parties - orgs |
| External Url | |
| Situation(s) |
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| Library |
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| Short Answer |
No parties which expressly assume such an agenda, through their statutes, could be identified. Yet, certain parties have been qualified as extremist in the course of time. |
| Qualitative Info |
One of the regular international assessments with regards to Romania comes from the US Department of State Reports on Human Rights practices. These reports have constantly mentioned the Greater Romania (PRM) Party as an extreme nationalist party. The US Department of State 2011 Human rights report for Romania states that: “During the year the publications of the PRM, headed by Corneliu Vadim Tudor, continued to carry statements and articles containing strong anti-Semitic attacks.” [1] A 2003 report, making an analysis of right wing extremism in Romania, identifies the three main targets of PRM extremism as being: Hungarians, the Roma and the Jews.[2] In 2000, the party’s leader and symbolic figure Corneliu Vadim Tudor, made it to the runoff of Presidential elections and finally got 33.17% of the votes.[3] The same 2003 analysis of extremism in Romania made the case that, in order to obtain this result, Mr. Tudor largely capitalized on Romanians’ poverty and dissatisfaction with corruption; in essence, that extremism alone would not have gotten him there. [4] Yet, it was also clear that Mr. Tudor’s extremism had not bothered those who voted for him mainly on account of poverty and of being fed up with corruption. Since 2000, Mr Tudor has constantly run in presidential elections. He got 5.56% of the votes in 2009. [5] His party, however, no longer made it to the Romanian Parliament in 2008.[6] It got low scores in the 2012 local elections,[7] but did make it to the European Parliament in 2009.[8] Perhaps one the most tense moments was in May 2001 when, according to the US Department of State Human Rights Report for Romania for 2001: “…the Israeli Ambassador expressed concern about a book published by a member of the extreme-right "Greater Romania" Party (PRM) which contained two jokes on the extermination of Jews by the Nazis. The Minister of Justice called for an investigation, the publishing house sent a letter of apology to the Israeli Ambassador, and the PRM leader apologized to the Jewish community. In August another PRM party representative published a book called ‘The Nationalist’, which included xenophobic and chauvinistic ideas. The book was condemned widely by the national media and leadership, and the PRM leadership disowned the book.”[9] Depite retractions, PRM, and its leader, continued along the same lines. The US State Department continued to report for example, in 2007: “During the year, the leader of the extreme nationalist Greater Romania Party (PRM), Corneliu Vadim Tudor, continued to make statements and write articles containing strong anti-Semitic attacks. In a speech on March 23, Tudor denied that any Holocaust activities had occurred in the country. On May 24, the president withdrew by decree the Star of Romania medal from Tudor. Tudor challenged the decree, and on June 26 a Bucharest court suspended its enforcement until the lawsuit was resolved. On April 18, Edward Iosiper, ambassador-designate to Israel, appeared before the parliament for his confirmation hearing. According to press reports, Iosper's hearing had anti-Semitic overtones. Two PRM members of parliament demanded to know whether Iosiper felt ‘Jewish or Romanian.’ They continued this line of questioning without any intervention by other members of the parliament's foreign affairs committee. Iosiper was subsequently approved as ambassador to Israel.” [10] Mr. Tudor also came to the attention of the National Council for Combating Discrimination for fiercely racist statements against the Roma as well as homophobic statements, in 2005, after an open letter sent by the European Roma Rights Centre to the Romanian Government with regards to the anti-Roma speech in the media and also of politicians, following ECtHR decisions in the Hadareni case (where ethnic violence occured against the Roma). According to the ERRC: “Mr. Vadim Tudor stated that during the 1993 pogrom the Romanians were just defending their ‘honor’ against the ‘gypsy rapists and thieves’ who wanted to ‘slaughter’ them. Mr. Vadim Tudor accused the state authorities of failing to protect the ‘peaceful villagers’ against the ‘bloody anger of a few brutes’. He continued by calling on all Romanians to ‘protect [their] brothers in the wounded heart of Transylvania’ against ‘the gypsy attacks and raids’”. The statement was aired on the Radio and published in one of the PRM publications. [11] The NCCD, through a 2006 decision, found the statements were discriminatory but did not sanction, deciding to take into account parliamentary immunity (Mr. Tudor was Senator at the time), seeing the statements as entering under the umbrella of political speech. [12] The NCCD, also gave Mr. Tudor a warning in 2005 for homophobic statements, namely, according to the media: “We are parents of children. The Romanian people is a people with healthy mores, they are anomalies of nature, I pity them, but let them consummate their sin, if this can be called love (…) in silence. Listen, they should not piss me off, because I’ll impale them and they might like it.” [13] The party’s statute (last modified in 2010) states that: “it shall not be allowed, within the party, any anti-Semitic and xenophobic position, acting with promptitude and firmness against any manifestations of Holocaust denial” [14] Another party, also considered by the US Department of State as extreme nationalist, is the New Generation – Christian Democrat Party, led by George Becali, MEP and owner of a famous Bucharest football Club – Steaua. In 2005, the US Department of State, in its report on International Religious Freedom informed on the fact that: “The extreme nationalist New Generation Party adopted for its electoral campaign a slogan used by the 1930s anti-Semitic Legionnaire Movement: ‘I swear to God to make Romania into a country like the holy sun in the sky.’” [15] The same report for 2007, notes that: “The New Generation Party, which grew significantly in the polls, maintained its 2004 slogan, which was used by the 1930s anti-Semitic Legionnaire Movement.”[16] The Human Rights Practices Report for the same year states that: “In June Georghe Becali, the owner of a soccer team and head of the right-extremist New Generation Party, launched a strong attack against gays in a public address, calling on them not to attend his team's soccer matches.” [17] Mr Becali is a “regular client” of the National Council for Combating Discrimination, covering various grounds with his statements, not just sexual orientation.[18] A 2012 news report stated that there had been 17 cases against him before the NCCD. [19] Newest statements, when, according to the media, he refused to get a French football player to his club on account of being black, got him the attention and outrage of the international press. [20] In the June 2012 local elections, Mr. Becali’s party obtained low scores.[21] The New Generation Christian Democrat Party did not make it to the Parliament in 2008. [22] However, Mr. Becali made it to the European Parliament together with Mr. Tudor, on the Greater Romania Party lists.[23] One of the slogans used in the campaign was: “Two Christians and patriots will rid the country of thieves” [24] Although these parties do not gather significant electoral scores at present, and although the rhetoric can be said to have toned down in the past few years, at least in the case of Mr Tudor, it would be hasty to say that this is due to an evolution of the Romanian electorate and parties towards more democratic values. According to a 2011 Soros study on Romanian electoral behaviours, more specifically within a project on religious behaviour, Romanians are among the most conservative citizens in the EU. Over 80% consider homosexuality and prostitution to represent behaviours which cannot have a justification, while a lower 76% consider the same of the death penalty. [25] In October 2012, Mr Becali became member of the mainstream party National Liberal Party (part of the Social-Liberal Union - currently the strongest political alliance) and, despite civil society protests, [26] was placed on the parliament elections lists, where he got a deputy seat in December 2012. [27] In February 2013, Mr Becali resigned from the National Liberal party after a court ruling sentencing him to three years imprinsonment with suspension and eight years probation for kidnapping three men who had stolen his car. He did not resign from Parliament. [28] Sources:
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| Represented in government/parliament? | No |
| Groups affected/interested | Roma & Travelers, Ethnic minorities, Religious minorities, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, National minorities |
| Type (R/D) | Anti-semitism, Anti-roma/zinghanophobia, Religious intolerance, Nationalism, Homophobia |
| Key socio-economic / Institutional Areas | Political discourse -parties - orgs |
| External Url | |
| Situation(s) |
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