“Politicians in Bulgaria have become extremely impudent”: Kr. Karakachanov was convicted of discriminating for his anti-Roma statements
In its decision of 09.06.2021, the Supreme Administrative Court of the Republic of Bulgaria ruled that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense in the previous government Krassimir Karakachanov discriminated against with his anti-Roma statement of January 8, 2019 in the Plovdiv village of Voyvodinovo. This is clear from a decision of the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC). The decision is final and not subject to appeal.
The case arose after an incident between two Roma men from the village of Voyvodinovo and a professional soldier from the same village. The two men were identified and later convicted, but the consequences of the incident affected the entire Roma community in the village and throughout the country. Then Karakachanov told the media: “Gypsies in Bulgaria have become extremely impudent now.”
Many other Roma who were not been involved in the crime were subjected to public and mass threats, insults and were eventually expelled from the village. The formal reason for this was that their houses were illegal. Then, in the middle of winter, several dozens of families remained on the streets, including young children, the elderly and people with disabilities. 17 children had to leave the local school and actually dropped out, as this happened a month before the end of the school term and by law they could not be enrolled in another school. The expulsion was defined by the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee as a collective punishment based on ethnicity. In a letter to the Minister of Defense, Center Amalipe condemned the statement of Kr. Karakachanov and refused the invitation to send Roma children to congratulate Vasilitsa on the Ministry of Defense. Many other Roma and human rights organizations reacted sharply to Karakachanov’s remarks, and the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee and Roma activist Acho Yordanov filed a lawsuit with the Commission for Protection against Discrimination.
After his speech from Voyvodinovo, Karakachanov proposed that the Council of Ministers approve a Concept for Changes in the Policies for the Integration of the Gypsy (Roma) Ethnicity, which has gained popularity as a Concept for Combating Gypsyization. The document violated basic constitutional provisions and came in stark contrast to key principles for the protection of human rights. Despite numerous attempts by Deputy Prime Minister Karakachanov to vote on the document in the Council of Ministers, it was rejected for consideration. Nevertheless, the anti-Roma issue has become one of the key issues for the VMRO’s European Parliament election campaign. The latter was one of the factors that led to an increase in support for this party.
After the Commission for Protection against Discrimination did not consider Karakachanov’s statement from Voyvodinovo to be discriminatory, as did the Administrative Court in Sofia, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee referred the case to the Supreme Administrative Court.
With its decision, the SAC annulled the rulings of the Commission for Protection against Discrimination (CPD) and the Administrative Court – Sofia-city, which did not establish Karakachanov’s statement to discriminate.
The case is returned to the CPD for a new ruling on the file and possible imposition of a sanction on the violator Karakachanov.
Beyond the statement and the decision
Moral categories, including the “impudent” category, refer to the individual, not to the whole group. To place an entire community under a certain moral category is a sign not only of dubious values, but also of purposeful discriminatory attitudes, suggestions and actions. The statement of Kr. Karakachanov from Vojvodina is definitely discriminatory and even racist. It is certainly untrue and does not apply to the majority of Roma. As Assoc. Prof. Alexei Pamporov pointed out immediately after the speech, with the same success, it can be attributed to Bulgarian politicians – it will be in force for some politicians, but we should not use it for the whole group.
The reaction of the former deputy prime minister after the announcement of the decision is also indicative. He said he would pay the fine, but would continue to do so… hopefully the majority of Bulgarian citizens, including politicians, have more respect and less “rude” attitude towards the decision of the judiciary and that Bulgaria is a state governed by the rule of law.
The decision of the Supreme Administrative Court Includes a very good reasoning, which can and should be used by other courts and in the Commission for Protection against Discrimination:
By its nature, the trial statement of Krassimir Karakachanov, quoted verbatim above, which contains negative comments on the Roma as a whole, exceeds the permissible negative attitude to the commented manifestations of serious crimes by the persons concerned and goes beyond the context of the specific incident discussed. , on the occasion of which the statement of the Minister from the village of Vojvodina was made. The impugned statement of discrimination does not express the critical point of view of its author only with regard to the perpetrators of the serious crimes in question. The means of expression used carry the clear and unambiguous message that the negative characteristics related to specific persons who have been identified as perpetrators of crimes are attributed to the entire Roma community through the generalization technique used. Undoubtedly, he expressed such things as: “Gypsies in Bulgaria have become extremely impudent already. A few years ago a policeman was beaten, two days ago a soldier was beaten… the tolerance of the Bulgarian society is running out “cannot be interpreted otherwise than as stigmatizing and presenting the entire Roma population in the country under the sign of the negative, condemning assessment given on the occasion of a specific criminal act by one or more persons, representatives of the Roma ethnic group. Regardless of the intentions and motives that motivated the statement of the cassation defendant, whether he wanted to direct his criticism and disapproval only to the perpetrators of the specific crimes or not, the fact is that the expressions he used (verbal unwanted behavior in the sense of § 1, item 1 of the Additional Provisions of the PfDA speak of the Roma ethnic minority in its entirety, called by the common name “Gypsies in Bulgaria”. In this way the suggestion is created and the message is sent that the described negative properties refer to each of the representatives of this community. Such generalization of the personalities of anyone who self-identifies as Roma and stereotyping the image of Roma as “impudent” members of society, towards whom the tolerance of Bulgarians is “exhausted”, can undoubtedly harm and undermine the dignity of the ethnic group, while contributing to the creation of permanently negative, potentially hostile and conflict-generating attitudes, instills an attitude of mistrust and intolerance in society towards each member of the Roma ethnic group.
Read more
Letter to the Minister of Defense
Analysis of the Roma concept of Deputy Prime Minister Karakachanov
Letter on Karakachanov’s Roma concept
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