Spain Romania considers lodging a complaint against the “Partido Popular” on the “Badalona” case

April 28, 2010

Comment: The online version of the fourth largest Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia published an article on April 28th highlighting the discriminatory measures against Romanian citizens taken by the mayor of a conservatives (PP)-ruled Badalona, a small town in the region of Catalonia.

Leaflets drawing a parallel between the Romanian immigrants and lack of security in the town were distributed, with the slogan “we don’t want Romanians”. The conservative party rejected the idea of taking disciplinary measures against the mayor, and insisted that the PP policy has always been pro-immigration.

The reaction of the President of the Association of Romanian in Catalonia, Mr Gaiseanu, is not more reassuring. Gaiseanu condemned the leaflets and the attitude of the mayor as xenophobic, in insisting that Romanian community should not be “extrapolated” to the reality of Roma of Romanian origin. Such a statement is discriminatory in itself and stigmatizes the Roma community for the purpose of differentiating Romanian citizens belonging to the Roma community from “normal Romanians”.

Notwithstanding the fact that the Roma origin is considered as a citizenship in the article, the level of acceptance of Roma in Catalonia is still very low as demonstrated by three discriminatory attitudes on one single event.

Author of the comments: Pierre Cazenave, Child Rights Officer, Tdh Regional Office, Hungary.