Bulgarian Socialists Slam French Roma Policy

Monday representatives of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the main opposition party in Bulgaria, slammed the deportation from France of Roma, describing it as "racist." Photo by BGNES.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party has called on the Bulgarian government to demand explanation from French authorities on the deportation campaign launched against Bulgarian and Romanian Roma.

“This approach smells like manifest racisms,” said the Socialists' representative for inter-ethnic questions Miroslav Popov, adding that one of the reasons for failure to integrate Roma is that they are constantly being isolated from the rest of society.

Popov said that the French bid to remove Roma residing in France to their home countries amounts to “stigmatization” of the whole community.

The representative of the Socialist Party, which is the largest opposition party in Bulgaria, added that the issue “necessitates the launching of a discussion on the very functioning of the EU.”

Bulgarian Socialist Party's secretary on international activity and civil society Denitsa Zlateva specified that the EU must steep up efforts on Roma integration, especially in view of the future membership of Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia, which is set to increase the Union's Roma population.

In distinction from its Romanian counterparts, who have held a consistently strong stance towards the actions of the French government against Roma, Bulgarian authorities have remained largely silent this far.

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