The Roma Organisations and their Relations with the Romanian Politics in the 1930s

Dr. Viorel Achim

Panel 4 The Roma, Gagauz, and Aromanians

Abstract

This paper discusses the way in which the Roma organizations, created in 1930s Romania, related to Romanian politics in general, and to the political parties in particular.

The two main Roma organizations to act nationwide – the General Association of the Gypsies in Romania (AGŢR), and the General Union of the Roma in Romania (UGRR), both founded in 1933 – but also other smaller Roma organizations, were not directly involved in the politics of that time, but nevertheless operated within the political milieus. The Roma leaders tried to gain support for their projects, ultimately aspiring to modernize the Roma population socially, culturally, and politically. Support for such projects also came from the administrative authorities interested in solving some problems of the local Roma communities. Roma leaders had close relations with political parties and politicians, and some of them even joined Romanian parties.

The perhaps most important facet thereof was the degree of electoral cooperation between Roma leaders and their organisations and some political parties. The parties were interested in Roma votes, particularly in areas where this population was strong. Roma leaders, in turn, tried to exchange these Roma votes for political favours needed to resolve internal issues. An example of such collaboration came with parliamentary elections in 1933, when some Roma leaders supported the National Liberal Party (PNL). On this occasion, electoral meetings were organized in Bucharest neighbourhoods with sizeable Roma populations.

But the most notorious cooperation of this type was forged between the National Christian Party (PNC), a nationalist, anti-Semitic group led by Octavian Goga and A. C. Cuza that briefly governed following an electoral success in December 1937. G. A. Lăzureanu-Lăzurică and Calinic I. Popp Şerboianu, the leaders of two organizations (AGŢR and the Civic Organization of the Roma), had close ties with the PNC and entered into an agreement with it. To mobilize the Roma vote in favour of the PNL, individuals of Roma origin were included on the PNC lists of candidates for the county and town councils. During the 1937 electoral campaign the PNC journal Ţara Noastră (Our Country) printed a special weekly for the Roma. The two leaders even enrolled in the anti-Semitic rhetoric of the PNC.

Roma leaders were also on good terms with the Legionnaires, or Iron Guard, Romania’s pro-German fascist party. Iron Guard boss Corneliu Zelea-Codreanu and his Legionnaire students lent a hand to G. A. Lăzureanu-Lăzurică in holding the founding congress of UGRR in 1933. Codreanu was elected an honorary member of the Union in return for his support.

At first sight, this seems to be a curious situation, one in which the rightwing extremist, nationalistic, and xenophobic parties collaborated with Roma leaders. This is explained by the fact that in interwar Romania the Roma were not perceived as a national minority that jeopardized the interests of the state or the ethnic majority. Politicians did not regard the Roma as a “problem.” If the “Jewish problem” figured prominently in Romanian interwar politics, there was no correlating “Gypsy problem” to speak of. Interwar Romanian nationalism was not accompanied by anti-Gypsy manifestations. The rightwing extremists’ xenophobic programs never stood in the way, as the Roma were not mentioned in the anti-minority rhetoric of those groups. The Roma were seen neither as an ethnic nor a social problem, and racist theories concerning them, as promoted by some supporters of eugenics, aroused little interest. The anti-minority policy of the PNC or of the Legionnaires applied to the Jews and other minorities, not to the Roma. Consequently, there was no “Gypsy policy” to speak of in Romania before 1940.

Related Publications

• The Roma in Romanian History. English translation by Richard Davies. Budapest, New York: Central European University Press, 2004.
• Documente privind deportarea ţiganilor în Transnistria: Culegere întocmită, cu Studiu Introductiv de Viorel Achim, Vol. I-II. Bucureşti: Editura Enciclopedică, 2004.
• Constatin Iordachi (eds.). România şi Transnistria: Problema Holocaustului. Perspective istorice şi comparative. Bucureşti: Curtea Veche, 2004.
• Cigányok a román történelemben:Fordította Török Blanka Csilla: A fordítást eredetivel egybevetette Schültz István. Budapest: Osiris Kiadó, 2001.
• Banatul în evul mediu: Studii. Bucureşti: Albatros, 2000.
• Tziganite v istorijata na Rumănija. Sofia: Infonet 2000.
• Ţiganii în istoria României. Bucureşti: Editura Enciclopedică, 1998.