The 63rd congress of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN), the civil society umbrella of national minority organizations, adopted a resolution on June 23, 2018, which condemns the racist and unconstitutional remarks of Italian Minister of Interior Affairs Matteo Salvini.
Resolution concerning the propagated unconstitutional and discriminatory ethnic census of Sinti and Roma in Italy
FUEN strongly condemns the hate speech and antigypsyism of Italian Minister of Interior Affairs, Matteo Salvini, who propagated an unconstitutional and discriminatory ethnic census of Sinti and Roma in Italy, and who stigmatized Sinti and Roma and divided Italians based on their ethnic origin. Minister Salvini expressed his intention to deport Roma from Italy and stated that Roma with Italian citizenship “unfortunately have to be kept”; thus, he questioned and violated the citizenship of the Italian Sinti and Roma who have been citizens of their country for centuries.
FUEN stresses the importance of equal citizenship and the protection of national and ethnic minorities; it therefore calls upon the Italian Republic to strengthen the recognition and protection of Sinti and Roma under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.
FUEN underlines that such public hate speech risks to incite hatred and violence against Sinti and Roma. FUEN calls upon all political parties in Italy and in Europe to support and respect the Charter of European Political Parties for a Non-Racist Society (Revised), in particular during election campaigns and ahead of the European Parliament elections 2019.
FUEN recalls its resolution 2017-03 of its General Assembly in Cluj-Napoca on forced evictions and housing segregation, as well as its “Eisenstadt Declaration” on solidarity with Roma adopted in 2011. The inhumane living conditions of about 25.000[1] Sinti and Roma in formal and informal camps in Italy are the result of state policies over decades[2] that violate European values, equality laws and fundamental rights. FUEN calls upon the European Union and its Member States to prioritize the fight against antigypsyism in a renewed European Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies after the year 2020.
FUEN calls upon the Italian government, which currently holds the chairmanship of the OSCE and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in 2018, as well as upon the European institutions and EU Member States to uphold the rule of law and democratic values by fulfilling their binding international commitments for human rights, minority protection and equal treatment, and by condemning and sanctioning any form of antigypsyism and human rights violations against Sinti and Roma.
[1] Annual Report of 21 Iuglio
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