Romani Rose, the chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, also had a positive message ready on Tuesday.
Much has happened at the political level in the fight against antigypsyism that was unimaginable thirty or forty years ago, said Rose.
Helene Bubrowski
Political correspondent in Berlin.
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Discrimination by state institutions has decreased, Sinti and Roma are recognized as a national minority, said Rose, and emphasized that the memorial for the murdered Sinti and Roma of Europe is not far from the Reichstag in Berlin.
The federal government is considered to be "exemplary" internationally.
However, progress in politics was still lacking in society.
"We are perceived as strangers," said Rose.
He cited two examples: In Bremen, a municipal housing association had internal instructions not to rent to Sinti and Roma.
In the midday magazine, the presenter spoke of "Gypsy life" and meant something like a meander.
Systematically criminalized and marginalized
“It's a picture that sits in your head,” said Rose, referring to a study from 2014, according to which 60 percent of Germans rejected Sinti and Roma as neighbors or work colleagues. According to Rose, no distinction should be made between cultural and national identity. “We are primarily Germans” and have been for 600 years.
During this time, the Sinti and Roma were often the “scapegoats”, says Rose, recalling that 90 percent of the Sinti and Roma living in Germany at the time were murdered by the National Socialists. But even after the war, Rose describes antiziganism as “part of the basic attitude” of many employees in state institutions who “systematically criminalized and marginalized” the entire minority. He mentions in particular the Federal Criminal Police Office, which has meanwhile dealt with its history.
Rose warns against fighting in the wrong places.
The memory of the victims of the genocide is, "to put it very clearly, something completely different from the dispute over gypsy sauce or the 'gypsy baron' by Johann Strauss".
Such a dispute "ridicule the confrontation with the often massive discrimination".
Demand for the prohibition of deportations
The reason for Rose's words was the report of an expert commission set up by the federal government, which he presented on Tuesday together with Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU). The commission recommends, among other things, the appointment of a commissioner against antiziganism and the conclusion of a state treaty between the federal government and the Central Council of Sinti and Roma. From Rose's point of view, the aim of an interstate treaty must be for the Federal Government to “acknowledge the Sinti and Roma as an integral part of German society” and guarantee them “equal participation”.
From Seehofer's point of view, a state treaty is “necessary”, but can no longer be created in one legislative period.
He also expressed his sympathy for the demand for a representative against antiziganism.
Other members of the federal government are of the opinion that this task should be carried out by the commissioner against racism, who is to be appointed in the coming year.
Seehofer did not want to go along with the demand of the spokeswoman for the expert commission, Elizabeta Jonuz, that deportations of Sinti and Roma should be prohibited per se in the absence of safe countries of origin.
The question of deportation must always be answered with a view to the specific situation in the country of origin.