Populism and Anti-Romani Sentiment in the EU: A Multistate Analysis

The integration of Romani communities has been a vexed issue for generations, mostly in central and Eastern European states. In recent years, however, it has gained increased political prominence across the whole of Europe. Our paper presents a comparative analysis of how populist parties in both ‘old’ and ‘new’ EU member states are mobilising anti-Romani sentiment for electoral advantage. We look at how parties ‘bundle’ classic populist issues such as Euroscepticism, anti-elitism, nationalism with anti-Gypsyism and Romophobia and compare how this occurs in a selection of states from Western and Central and Eastern Europe (France, Italy, Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary). Moreover, we explore how the specific nature of the Roma ‘issue’ has facilitated its use for electoral and publicity mobilization by populist parties with a significant degree of success and whether the old ‘east – west’ divides remain meaningful in this context.