Radicalizarea discursului românesc despre romi în spaţiul public: pandemia, alegerile sau AUR?
The commitment of EU to fight against racism, xenophobia and hate crime has been strengthened in 2013, with the adoption of the European Parliament of a resolution calling on “the role of national authorities responsible for fighting discrimination to be strengthened in order to facilitate accountability for the promotion of hate speech and incitement of hate crime”. However, hate speech against the Roma minority in the public space, especially on the internet, social media, still occurs and shows a need to prevent and combat negative stereotyping, stigmatization and ethnicizing crime and criminalizing the Roma. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, diversity governance and minority protection have been even more challenged and this papers aims at examining the public discourse and phenomenon of hate speech against Roma communities and individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic in Romania, through the lens of a few selected case studies which have featured prominently in the media. Special attention will be given to the political discourse on the Roma minority during this time, as the pandemic period coincides with the rise to power of the far-right populist party the Alliance for Romanian Unity (AUR).
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