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Discrimination and the Roma Community 2014
4. Political representatives
give their views on discrimination
Gaspar Llamazares Trigo
Member of Parliament, United Left Party
1. Does racial or ethnic discrimination exist in Spain?
Roma have been subject to discrimination for six centu-
ries. Since then in Spain and in other countries, the vary-
ing degrees of violent racism against them has slack-
ened but has not disappeared. The crisis that Europe is
mired in cannot be used as a pretext to re-stigmatise
and persecute the Roma community as has unfortu-
nately occurred in the past; that ever present under-
lying risk of “low intensity” discrimination can escalate
into “maximum risk” as has happened in other European
countries. We continue to bear witness to outbreaks of
racial violence in local communities that are still treated
with permissiveness, indifference and impunity. There
are political leaders, media and social network Internet
users that spread negative stereotypes and prejudic-
es that contaminate the social psyche and get passed
down from one generation to the next.
Many Roma have been relegated to an underground
economy and are still marginalised in areas such as em-
ployment, education, housing and political participation
processes as pointed out in the annual ‘Discrimination
and the Roma Community’ reports.
The institutions have advanced further than the society
in eliminating the stigmas affecting the Roma people.
Despite a rise in regulatory instruments to sanction
ethnic discrimination, there are cases that are cause
for concern among some police and private security
officers. Anti-discrimination legislation is not enforced
in Spain and very few cases of discrimination actual-
ly reach the courts because they are not identified as
such.
2. What are your concerns in the sphere of social rejec-
tion of the Roma community in Spain?
I am particularly concerned about the way that certain
politicians and the media treat the Roma community.
There are many examples of rejection. In the area of
justice, a Roma person is much more likely to be sub-
jected to identity checks by the police than non-Ro-
ma. There is an over-representation of Spanish Roma
inmates in the prison population. Access to health-care
(Roma life expectancy is 10 years lower than that of the
rest of the population) is another important shortcom-
ing, and the child mortality rate is much higher.
Every day there are cases of people who are unable to
rent a flat or park their camper at a campsite because
they are Roma. Spanish civil legislation does not recog-
nise the legal effects of the Roma marriage rite. Roma
women in particular have suffered from this lack of
recognition. On a number of occasions the courts have
refused to award them widow’s pensions despite hav-
ing been married according to the traditional Roma rite
as from an early age, having contributed to the Social
Security system for a great many years and possessing
the Spanish Libro de Familia (Family Record).
The unemployment, underemployment and under-
ground employment rates are higher amongst the Roma
community than the rest of the population. That being
the case, over one third of those who are employed
work in mobile trading and in the field of construction.
Women are employed in the services sector engaging
in unskilled labour activities.
3. How can a political leader contribute to promoting
equality?
The State, through its legislative, executive and judicial
branches of government, must set up the necessary
measures to guarantee the right to equality through
its education, employment, health-care and housing
policies. But this is not being done. It would suffice
to note that Spain has not yet effectively complied
with the European mandate established under Euro-
pean Directive 2000/43/EC, concerning the creation
of an independent body to promote equal treatment
and non-discrimination. The EU Framework for National
Roma Integration Strategies needs to be further devel-
oped in Spain and priority should be put on seeing to it
that 2014-2020 European funds are earmarked for this
objective. We also need to promote the implementa-