Analysis of Political Messages for Roma Day 2025: Brussels – Skopje – Madrid

International Roma Day, 8 April, was celebrated this year in a number of European cities against the backdrop of a complex international situation, marked by ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza, growing discontent in Europe and global rise of the far-right. This article aims to summarize the main political messages delivered on 8 April 2025 in Brussels, Skopje and Madrid, which reveal the current state of European Roma issues and hint at possible developments of the “Gypsy question” in the post-inclusion era.     

EU Roma Week – No time for victims and revolutions  

I start the analysis with something symbolical that happened in Brussels on 8th April during the annual “Roma Week” organized by ERIAC and ERGO in the EU Parliament. The request of a Roma man from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mehmed Mujić, that the participants in the event observe one minute silence in memory of the Roma Holocaust victims was not respected. The explanation: there was not enough time for that, but on the other hand, there was plenty of time for a musical performance. This was perhaps the strongest message of Roma Week 2025 amid all the talk about Roma language education at a time when “Alternative for Germany” is the second political force in the heart of EU, and genocide is taking place just on the other side of the Mediterranean.  

The monotonous course of the event was interrupted when Mr. Mujić, who introduced himself as an advisor on Roma issues to the Bosnian Ministry of Education and vice president of the International Roma Union, began to talk about the lack of Roma political representation in Brussels, the growing fascist threat, and the need for what he called a “Roma intellectual revolution”. However, the event’s moderators and panellists were not in a revolutionary mood to allow such discussions in a live-streamed event from European Parliament. Ironically, “The revolution will not be televised” was the title of a song by Gill-Scott Herron from the Black Liberation Movement era in USA.   

How will this “new Roma elite” challenge the old status quo if it bypasses the “iceberg” of accumulated problems and focuses mostly on “safe topics” that do not disturb the mental equilibrium of their Non-Roma partners and donors? What will happen when this “Titanic” collide with the iceberg? If these people feel uncomfortable talking about the growing oppression of their own community in Europe, they are even less likely to take a stand on those suffering outside of Europe like the Palestinians or Rohingya. The decolonization of the mind is a slow and difficult process. What is remarkable about this incident during the Roma Week is that the people, representing the status quo in the EU, were challenged by a man from the Western Balkans, outside the EU, who was frustrated with the behaviour of the “elites”. And this is not the first such case, the same happened when Roma refugees from Kosovo tried to talk in the European Parliament about their problems a few years ago. Change does not come from within, but from without – not from the centre, but from the periphery. Hence, a more active role of the Romanies from the European periphery can be predicted – the Roma, Gypsies, Cale from the Balkans, Britain, Spain and Scandinavia – just like 54 years ago when delegates from these regions gathered for the First World Roma Congress. But perhaps, instead of organising meetings in the European Parliament, where there are no longer any Roma, it would be wiser to meet in a place where Roma feel like hosts and not guests.      

EU Commission – Roma “Europe’s largest minority”   

Ahead of International Roma Day on 8 April, Executive Vice-President Mînzatu, Commissioner Lahbib and Commissioner Kos released a joint statement in which they say that “The Roma are Europe’s largest minority community – with 6 million Roma in the EU and 4 million in the enlargement region” – Western Balkans and Turkey. Leaving aside the question of whether these figures are reliable, one should ask what does the phrase “Europe’s largest minority” mean? There is no such thing in international and European law, there are only national or ethnic minorities recognized by individual states. The Commission still uses a definition of the Roma, which certainly has poetic and sentimental value, but no legal significance. How in this case does the European Commission formulate, implement and evaluate its policy towards a legally non-existent and statistically indeterminable group of people, left without political representation and without mechanisms to monitor the work the EU institutions? If we accept for a moment the Commission’s claim that there are only 6 million Roma living in the EU, there is no way that these 6 million are a “European minority”, either numerically or legally. Because in that case, we have to assume that the citizens of Luxembourg, who number just over 600 000, are a ‘majority’ compared with the 6 000 000 Roma “minority” in EU. It is obvious that the EU’s definitions and policies in this regard need to be updated.

Macedonia – Roma “not a minority but a people”

It was from the Western Balkans that a very different message of who the Roma are was heard. The Prime Minister of North Macedonia Hristijan Mickoski said in his speech on 8th April that Roma are “not a minority, but a people with a rich tradition of music, language, history, and customs”. In this way, Mickoski demonstrates that he does not accept the interpretation of Brussels but Skopje follows its own political line on the Roma issue. Whether Macedonia will continue to adhere to this view if it eventually joins the EU is a question worthy of consideration. But if in 2025 there is at least one country in Europe whose prime minister talks about a Roma people, and not about minorities and marginalized groups, this is undoubtedly a result of the efforts of generations of Roma intellectuals over the past hundred years. Now, the question is how the next generations will continue what those before them started.   

Spain – King Felipe VI waves the Roma flag

On Roma Day in Madrid, an event of great historical significance took place. While 276 years ago, Spanish King Ferdinand VI wanted to exterminate the Gitanos during the “Gran Redada”, on April 8, 2025, the current Spanish King Felipe VI went to the Congress of Deputies to hear the Roma anthem and celebrate “Día del Pueblo Gitano” together with Roma representatives. Among them was one of the patriarchs of the Roma movement in Spain – Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia – participant in the First World Roma Congress, which took place in a school in Orpington, UK, 54 years ago. Who would have thought then that one day it would be possible for the King of Spain himself to wave the Romani flag? I end this analysis with optimism about the Roma future, despite everything.