The Political Empowerment of Roma Youth in Bulgaria: Challenges and Perspectives Atanas Stoyanov243 This paper was written by the author, a young Roma activist, for the Roma and Sinti Youth Conference: Activism, Participation, Security, organized by the OSCE/ODIHR Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues. The opinions contained herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the OSCE, ODIHR, or any participating State. Introduction 243 Despite these efforts, a number of reports pub- lished by local and international non-governmental Bulgaria is the country with the highest percentage organizations (NGOs) suggest that these and other of Roma in Europe. Although not reflected in official integration strategies remain ineffective.246 A partic- statistics, numerous international organizations and ular problem with such strategies is that they are of- studies estimate that Roma make up approximate- ten developed without the full participation of Roma. 244 ly 10 per cent of the total population of Bulgaria. This paper is premised on the view that the only way Over the past twenty years, the country has witnessed to assist Roma in dealing with the challenges they face a series of efforts to improve the living standards of is to provide for their political empowerment; Roma Roma. Since the fall of communism, organizations must be afforded a place at the decision-making ta- such as the Open Society Institute in Sofia and the ble in order to shape their own future. The political Human Rights Project, among others, have been participation of Roma in Bulgaria has been neglected established with the aim of improving the situation for many years and continues to limit the capacity of of Roma and of promoting democratic values more Roma to realize their full potential. broadly. To this end, the focus of such work has been This paper analyses the main barriers to the active to combat the social exclusion and marginalization political participation of Roma in Bulgaria from the of Roma, including by improving literacy and school standpoint of Roma youth. It applies the definition of attendance rates, ensuring the provision of adequate “political participation” used by the Roma scholar and housing and health care and preventing ethnic dis- researcher, Dr. Iulius Rostas, who defines the term crimination. Consequently, Roma issues have been as “participation in electoral processes for local de- made part of the government agenda. In 1999, stra- cision-making institutions”.247 In the main, the paper tegic documents such as the “Framework Program considers traditional forms of political participation, for Equal Integration of Roma in Bulgarian Society” including running for election as a politician and vot- 245 were adopted for the very first time. In 2005, Sofia ing as a citizen. From the outset, the paper studies the hosted the launch of the Decade for Roma Inclusion overall picture regarding the political participation of 2005-2015, signalling the country’s commitment to Roma in Bulgaria, and presents data on their political improve the situation of Roma. representation at the local and national levels. The pa- per includes data on Roma political participation col- lected following the local elections held in 2003, 2007 243 The author is currently studying for an MA in Public Poli- and 2011, as well as data on Roma representation in cy at the Central European University (CEU), Budapest, and is a Municipal Councillor in the Municipality of Strazhitsa, Bulgaria the Bulgarian Parliament. In addition, the paper ex- (2011-2015). 244 “EU Platform for Roma Inclusion – frequently asked ques- tions”, European Commission website, Memo 11/795, 17 Novem- 246 “Millions don’t help Roma integration in Bulgaria”, dw.de, 21 ber 2011, March 2013, <http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-11-795_en.htm>. <http://www.dw.de/millions-dont-help-roma-integration-in-bul- 245 “Roma Political Participation in Bulgaria – National Demo- garia/a-16691459>. cratic Institute”, ndi.org, 2003, 247 Iulius Rostas, “Roma and Sinti political participation: Oppor- <http://www.ndi.org/files/1611_romaassess_020803.pdf>. tunities and risks of local-level engagement” (unpublished), 2014. Activism, Participation and Security among Roma and Sinti Youth 103 plores two case studies presenting the experiences of who skipped the questions related to ethnicity250 young Roma who have been elected at the national was 683,590, or 9.3 per cent of the total population. and municipal levels. Focusing on Roma youth, the In addition, the number of those who responded but report also examines the number of young educated preferred not to indicate their ethnicity was 53,391. In Roma in Bulgaria who could in future come to repre- total, 736,981 respondents, or 10 per cent of the total sent any political party. Finally, based on interviews population, did not answer the question on ethnicity. with young Roma, the report concludes with recom- It is perhaps unlikely that ethnic Bulgarians would not mendations for the Bulgarian government, for the indicate their ethnicity on the census. It is more likely country’s political parties and for international, inter- that those who do not self-identify do so because they governmental and non-governmental organizations, belong to an ethnic minority. Thus, it would appear including the OSCE/ODIHR. that the Council of Europe estimate of approximately 700,000 Roma is reasonable. Based on this figure, 24 Roma political participation in Bulgaria members of parliament, 517 municipal councillors and 530 mayors or deputy mayors should, ideally, be Ethnicity in Bulgaria and the 2011 National Census Roma. This paper explores the extent to which the In order to obtain a more accurate measure of the political participation of Roma falls short of this pro- political participation of Roma in Bulgaria, it is nec- jection. essary to establish the number of Roma as a percent- age of the country’s population. Data collected by the Roma political representation in Bulgaria in the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria (NSI) in the 2011 local elections most recent national census from 2011 puts Bulgaria’s The voluntary nature of questions pertaining to eth- population at 7,364,570. Of these, the number of peo- nicity also make it difficult to obtain comprehensive ple who self-identify as Roma is 325,343, or 4.7 per information on Roma political representation.251 248 cent of the total population of Bulgaria. However, during the 2003 and 2007 local elections, However, this data is highly disputed for a num- organizations such as the National Democratic Insti- ber of reasons. According to Article 21, paragraph 2, tute (NDI)252 and the Centre for Interethnic Dialogue of the Bulgarian Act on Statistics, individuals cannot and Tolerance “Amalipe”253 collected data in order to be required to provide the statistical office with any analyse the Roma political representation. Research 249 information on their race, ethnicity and religion. into the local elections of 2011 was conducted by the In accordance with this legal norm, in the censuses author of this paper. of 2001 and 2011, questions on ethnic origin, reli- By comparing data from these three election years, gion and mother tongue were answered on a volun- it is evident that the number of locally-elected coun- tary basis. As such, the ethnicity of many individuals cillors nominated by “Roma parties” (i.e., those parties was not recorded. In 2001, 1.1 per cent of respon- dents did not answer questions on ethnicity. In 2011 census, however, the total number of respondents 250 In the census, respondents were asked four questions relat- ing to ethnicity (questions 10 to 13), namely: “10. Your ethnic group is: 1) Bulgarian; 2) Turkish; 3) Roma; 4) Other: (please state); 5) I don’t self-identify. 11. Your mother tongue is: 1) Bulgarian; 2) Turk- ish; 3) Roma; 4) Other: (please state). 5) I don’t self-identify. 12. Are you religious? 1) Yes; 2) No; 3) I don’t self-identify. 13. Your reli- gion is: 1) Orthodox; 2) Catholic; 3) Protestant; 4) Muslim Sunni; 5) Muslim Shia; 6) Other: (please state); 7) I don’t have a religion; 8) I don’t self-identify. See: 2011 National Census form, National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria, <http://www.nsi.bg/census2011/ 248 “2011 Population Census: Main Results”, National Statistical PDOCS2/karta_Census2011.pdf>. Institute Bulgaria, 2011, p. 23, <http://www.nsi.bg/census2011/PDOCS2/Census2011final_ 251 “Law on Protection of Personal Data”, lex.bg, Article 5, para. en.pdf>. 1, item 1 para. 2, <http://www.lex.bg/bg/laws/ldoc/2135426048>. 249 Bulgarian Law on Statistics, Article 21, para. 2: “Individuals 252 “Roma Political Participation in Bulgaria”, NDI, op. cit., cannot be required to provide statistical data on race, nationality, note 242. ethnicity, religion, health, privacy, party affiliation, committed legal 253 Teodora Krumova, “Местни избори 2007: някои факти” offenses, philosophical and political beliefs.” The Bulgarian original (Roma after local elections 2007), Center Amalipe, 2007, is available at: <http://amalipe.com/files/bulletin/091207_newsletter_No8_2007_ <http://www.lex.bg/bg/laws/ldoc/2134668297>. bg.pdf>. 104 Activism, Participation and Security among Roma and Sinti Youth whose leaders openly self-identify as Roma) has seen • Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS): 15 a drastic decline in numbers, from 126254 in 2003 to Roma councillors elected in total (one in Dubnik, 96255 in 2007 and 17 in 2011. These results are alarm- one in Zavet, two in