SAR president Alina Mungiu Pippidi condemns the discriminatory statement of Mr. Adrian Papahagi. At the beginning of October, Papahagi, representative of the Christian Democratic Foundation (FCD), an entity affiliated with the Right Romania Alliance (ARD), posted the following statement on his Facebook profile: “After all, if we have a ‘cheguevarist’ Prime Minister who organized a coup and plagiarized, why not soon have a woman President who is lesbian, atheist and of Roma ethnicity?”. (Ro: „La urma urmei, dacă am ajuns să avem un premier plagiator, pucist i cheguevarist, de ce n-am avea în scurtă vreme o pre edintă romă, lesbiană şi atee”)
The “Right Romania Alliance” (ARD) is a center-right electoral alliance, formed by the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL), the Civic Force Party (PFC) and the National Peasant Christian Democratic Party (PNTCD). It has been launched on 29 September 2012 with the goal of participating in the upcoming parliamentary elections.This is not the first statement of this kind made by key political figures in presentday Romania.
In March 2012 Mr. Dan Sova, Spokesman of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) has denied the existence of the Romanian Holocaust, on The Money Channel. He declared that “no Jew has suffered on the Romanian territory, and this is because of Antonescu”. He has been severely criticized by civil society organizations and by representatives of the Jewish community. Moreover, Romani CRISS and the Center for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism (MCA) submitted a formal complaint on the basis of Emergency Ordinance 31/2002 on the prohibition of Holocaust denial. According this law, Holocaust denial is prohibited in Romania and punishable with detention for 6 months to 5 years and the forbidding of certain rights. Sova then apologized for his statements and Victor Ponta, president of PSD, declared that his party does not assume responsibility for such statements.
Another recent discriminatory remark has been that of Mr. Baconschi, member of the Democratic-Liberal Party (PDL), president of the Christian Democratic Foundation and Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time. He implied that Roma people are naturally inclined towards criminal behavior, by saying: “We have some natural and physiological problems related to criminality in some Romanian communities, especially among Romanian citizens of Roma ethnicity”. This remark caused protests from the civil society and the Roma community, who asked him to resign and submitted a formal complaint to the National Council for Combating Discrimination (CNCD). The council decided in 5November 2010 that his remarks do constitute discrimination in light of the provisions of Ordinance 137/2000 for the prevention and sanctioning of all forms of discrimination, and advised Baconschi to refrain from making such statements in the future.