Uproar over ambassador’s comments on Roma
University teachers, students and researchers on Tuesday protested against
remarks by Geza Jeszenszky, Hungary’s ambassador to Norway, which they think
“stigmatise” the Roma minority. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that
Jeszenszky cannot be blamed for prejudice for his lines.
Over 100 people signed the statement concerning a textbook used at Budapest’s
Corvinus University (BCE), in which Jeszenszky suggested that “the reason why
many Roma are mentally ill is because in Roma culture it is permitted for
sisters and brothers or cousins to marry each other or just to have sexual
intercourse with each other”.
The statement said that the textbook’s conclusion was not scientifically
supported and insisted that the community of BCE could not “accept pseudo-scholarly
claims disguised in the cloak of science, especially not those harshly
stigmatising an ethnic group.”
Jeszenszky has rejected accusations of racism. In a statement, the diplomat
said that “as a teacher, minister and ambassador” he has always supported cases
of persecuted ethnic or religious communities.
He admitted that he was not an expert on Roma issues, and said that a 15-page
chapter in his textbook on the community was based on other authors. “Not even a
biased Roma civil rights activist could find fault with my handling of the
subject; hundreds of Hungarian and foreign students have used my book and found
it useful,” he said.
