The Minister of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare in office, María Luisa Carcedo, has defended, at the inauguration of the Samuradipen Memorial, the Holocaust of the Gypsy People, which "is crucial to claim foundational principles such as democracy, freedom, solidarity and justice. "
"We must be vigilant to the setbacks that may occur in the heat of the rise of xenophobic parties, to prevent the ghost of intolerance that runs through Europe is also installed in Spain," he added. "The values of the European Union are incompatible with discrimination and xenophobia," he insisted.
The acting minister has inaugurated the event together with the President of the Federation of Associations of Roma Women, Beatriz Carrillo, who has thanked "her perseverance to keep this tribute alive, year after year." He has also transferred a "special gratitude" to the Institute of Gypsy Culture, the State Council of the Gypsy People and the association Memory of the Gypsy genocide.
The Samuradipen Memorial is an annual institutional act where the victims of the Gypsy Genocide are honored and remembered. Samuradipen is the name given to the attempts of Nazi Germany and Austria to exterminate most of the gypsy peoples of Europe, as part of the Holocaust. The most recent empirical works estimate that between 225,000 and 500,000 Roma people could have been killed.
Only during the so-called Night of the Gypsies, from August 1 to 2, 1944, in a few hours, more than 3,000 Gypsy people were killed in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
The act held today also reminds the Roma victims of the so-called Great Raid, a Royal Order of Ferdinand VI, on July 30, 1749.
"The act claims part of the history of the Roma, even in spite of its crudeness, to learn from it," explained María Luisa Carcedo. "To deepen the knowledge and recognition of the historical memory of the Roma people allows to foster coexistence from respect and diversity," he added.
The acting minister has highlighted the institutional and social recognition of the value of gypsy culture. "It is a moral imperative to publicize the gypsy reality, its diversity and its contribution to Spanish culture. We owe it to all gypsies and we owe it to all citizens of Spain," he said.
Carcedo recalled the Government's commitment to improving the living conditions of Roma people and eliminating racial discrimination. In this regard, he recalled that the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights expressed satisfaction with Spain's approval of the national strategy for the Social Inclusion of the Roma Population in Spain 2012-2020, which is being developed in through the 2018-2020 Operational Plan.
"You form the most important ethnic minority in Europe," recalled the Acting Minister, who highlighted the Government's mandate to persevere in the implementation of measures aimed at eradicating poverty and social exclusion.
"One of the ideas that has guided the work of the Ministry of Health, Consumption and Social Welfare during the last term is to ensure that all people enjoy the same opportunities to pursue their life projects, regardless of their zip code or ethnicity," it is finished.
The act has been closed by the Secretary of State for Social Services, Ana I. Lima and the president of Unión Romaní, Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia.