Slovak lawmaker Irena Biháriová, first Romani woman to chair a major political party, tells ROMEA TV Romani candidates must get opportunities to run from electable spots

Biháriová is a lawyer, pedagogue, and publicly-known fighter against extremism and hatred. She was born in 1980 in Bratislava, grew up in a Romani family, and started becoming involved in human rights as a young woman.

She led the organization Ľudia proti rasizmu [People against Racism] and contributed to reforms thanks to which the crimes of extremism are now handled by a specialized court in Slovakia.

First Romani woman to lead a political party with a chance of power-sharing

Biháriová entered politics when she sensed that her opportunities in the nonprofit sector had been exhausted. “I really achieved the maximum possible with what I was able to do in the non-profit sector, with the tools I had at my disposal,“ she said, adding that she realized that if she want to make more progress on her issues, she needed political power.

At the same time, she had people around her who shared her ideals and trusted her. “I knew I wasn’t entering an environment that wanted to exploit my ethnicity, and it was exactly the confluence of such circumstances that brought me to the very center of events as the political party was being born,” she explained in the interview.

In the year 2020, Biháriová became the first Romani woman to lead a statewide political party, Progressive Slovakia. She took over the leadership of the party she had founded after it suffered a heavy defeat in the elections, doing so without financing, media support, or a parliamentary position from which to profile it.

“I took over the party after it experienced a very, very unexpected, crushing defeat,” Bihariová said, adding that she was expected to come up with solutions to problems which were not at all simple: ensuring the party’s continued functioning in politics, keeping it alive in the media space, and restoring trust among the party’s voters. After being elected to the leadership, she realized she was under sharper scrutiny than her colleagues were.

“I was aware that the public eye was strictly scrutinizing me,” she said, adding that her Romani identity was the reason why even her smallest failure would be judged more harshly than the mistakes of a non-Romani politician. What’s more, her Romani identity was often used to attack her.

Biháriová said that she was both “A Romani woman and the face of the fight against extremism.” She admits that extremist sentiments were increasingly penetrating ordinary households in Slovakia at the time, and many people perceived her as somebody who was going where they believed Romani people should not belong.

“I had to come to terms with that in my own way,” the lawmaker told ROMEA TV.

We need Romani women and men in the electable spots on candidate lists, not in 70th place!

Biháriová appealed to political parties in her interview, and not just those in Slovakia, to give chances to Romani women and men to run from electable sports on candidate lists. “Give the Romani people a real chance. Because when you put them in the 70th place and use them as a mascot, as an alibi, that: ‘Look, we’re not racists, we gave the Roma an opportunity, they can run from the 70th place,’ – thanks a lot, we know how that’s always turned out,“ she said sarcastically.

The lawmaker also considers it essential that Romani people participate in creating new political projects from the start. According to her, that was exactly what played a crucial role in her own decision to get into politics and succeed.

Biháriová believes Romani voices can actually be heard only if Romani women and men bring their own experiences and perspectives into politics. She also has fundamental reservations about how institutions and the public view Romani people.

The legislator does not just want to be perceived through an ethnic framework as somebody who is competent exclusively for the Romani or the social welfare agenda. “I don’t want to be condemned to concentrating on integration policy only,” she said.

Biháriová emphasizes that the goal of her work is to create a completely different image of Romani women and men in the public space, one that shows their expertise across all of society. “So that there are more and more Romani faces in public life and in various fields. To show the ability of Romani women and men to apply themselves in any social field, just like anybody from the majority society as soon as they have professional potential, professional credibility, and are given the opportunity,” she said.

Social networks have become an instrument of bullying and a space for the spread of hatred

According to Bihariová, social networks have fundamentally transformed the way disinformation, hatred, and manipulation spread in society. “The Internet has literally become an instrument for political bullying. From one day to the next you can end up with a label you can never erase, just because your political rival can’t find anything else to discredit you with,” she said.

The lawmaker also perceives the digital environment as having destroyed any respect for those who hold public office. “The Internet and the discussions open to the wider public have erased the distance that once existed between the people and somebody wielding public power. Basically anybody around can spit on you today,” she said.

Biháriová believes coming to terms with this new environment is and will be a basic challenge not just for politicians, but society as a whole. However, she believes political elites first and foremost should start the transformation with regard to this issue.

“I believe it will aid matters once political elites give up the use of disinformation and stop abusing this instrument for inciting hatred as part of political struggle,” the Progressive Slovakia lawmaker opined to ROMEA TV.