• Romophobia remains deeply entrenched and, more recently, has a source of political gain within the developing far right.
“For the persecution and hollowing out of our culture, life and even identities before the 1974 revolution, we deserve an apology,” says Marques.
by Marcus Alves
A cell phone is a luxury that a young Ricardo Quaresma cannot afford.
In May 2000, he in Israel with the under-16s from Portugal. He had woken up feeling bad and desperate to get in touch with his mother in Lisbon.
Burning in fever, he had only one concept in mind: how to get home as soon as possible. Instead, Quaresma convinced to stay and, despite his condition, reached the final of the European Under-16 Championship. He scored twice when Portugal beat the Czech Republic 2-1 in extra time to lift the trophy. These two goals would replace his life forever.
From the stands of Tel Aviv, Romanian coach Laszlo Bologn, who a year later would take the reins of Sporting Lisbon, watching. One of his first moves to announce Quaresma to the senior team.
At the end of the 2001–02 season, Sporting were champions and Quaresma the star of a crusade that paved the way for what lay ahead: signings for Barcelona, Inter Milan and, on loan, Chelsea.
During Portugal’s victorious crusade at Euro 2016, he participated in each and every match. He scored the winning goal against Croatia in the knockout stages and changed the decisive penalty against Poland in the quarter-finals. At age 32, he helped his country to its first leading name was the center of attention of his career. But off the field, it had an even bigger impact.
That summer, for the first time, a player of gypsy origin had the whole country. This led many to wonder if a tipping point had not been reached.
“Can a hero end 500 years of racism?” asked Renascenca, one of Portugal’s leading radio stations.
In such a way that Quaresma and its roots were embraced by enthusiasts who in the face of the latest opposition to France, the national newspaper Diario de Noticias published an article stating that “our gypsy is bigger than theirs”. It is a reference to rival striker André-Pierre Gignac, another footballer of Gypsy origin. After the tournament, however, the temperament changed again.
“It made us proud to have a member of our network that stands out at the highest level, but at the same time it is a combination of feelings for us that is not easy to explain,” says Vitor Marques, founder and current vice president of the Portuguese Gypsy Union.
“Unfortunately, our network continues to be heavily discriminated against in opposition to Portugal. We have noticed that an entire country gives Ricardo a standing ovation and sings his name, but the next minute those same other people will call us all criminals when one of our own does. “nothing bad.
“In other words, we are not all as talented as Ricardo when he succeeds, but if only one user of our organization commits a crime, we are all immediately thrown into the same bag and a gang of criminals. It amazes each and every one of me. “time I hear that.
“As much as Portugal is not a racist country, there are obviously conditions of racism that persist in our society. “
Quaresma himself had to deal with it.
“I never smoked, I never drank, I never experimented (with drugs) and I never sought to do so. But now, as I’m a gypsy, I have a reputation for being a lot of things in football,” he said. in an interview with SIC in June 2016.
The Roma are the oldest ethnic minority in Portugal and yet they feel, in a way, like foreigners in their own country.
A 2016 survey through the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights found that 71% of the network had experienced discrimination in the past five years, the figure among the nine countries studied.
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa admitted in 2018 that Portugal’s strategy to fully integrate them had “failed. “Romophobia remains deeply entrenched and, more recently, has a source of political gain within the developing far right.
“We have identity documents, but we hear a lot from other people saying, ‘Go back to your country. ‘It will have to be the land of the Roma because I don’t know where it is,” Roma activist Pimenio Ferreira told state broadcaster RTP. .
The feeling of not being sought is part of the life of portugal’s Roma population. Research conducted through the Gulbenkian Foundation in 2021 found that many viewed Roma as unwanted neighbors, comparing them to alcoholics and drug addicts.
It is not uncommon to locate shops, restaurants and even pharmacies that use racist practices to scare them away. To do this, they place ceramic frogs at their entrances because the animal is a symbol of bad luck and evil, especially through the elderly. One of Portugal’s largest supermarket chains, Minipreco, had to apologize for doing this in 2019.
“We live under this concept that we are a tolerant nation, but it’s a very harmful concept,” Marques says. “We deserve to embrace the cultures of others than tolerate them. If we don’t replace this mindset, we will never be the same.
“We had the revolution of April 25 that ended almost 50 years of dictatorship and brought freedom to Portugal in 1974, but although the vast majority of citizens appropriated it, we ended up in oblivion. The day we have the same situations of access to school and work, we will be to say that we are as Portuguese as the other Portuguese, but that day has not yet arrived for us.
Last year, a report by the Council of Europe’s European Committee of Social Rights concluded that Portugal continued to violate the right to decent housing for the Roma network living in the country.
Perhaps the ultimate illustrative example of this comes from the northern town of Torre de Moncorvo, where families were evicted from tents in 2007 and held in a deactivated criminal complex for only six months.
They have been waiting for a permanent solution for more than a decade. The young men had to grow up in criminal cells. According to the country’s High Migration Commission, there were 37,000 Portuguese Roma in 2017, but the number is disputed through other resources and some estimate it to be at least 3 times higher.
In recent years, they have been vilified through Andre Ventura, leader of the far-right populist chega (Basta) party, which is now the third-largest force in the Portuguese parliament, after winning 12 seats in January’s general election.
A former tv football expert, Ventura accuses Roma of abusing the social and even presented them with an express containment plan at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic because they have “a lot of annoyance respecting the rules. “
He clashed publicly through Quaresma, who said his “racist populism only serves to pit men against men in the call for an ambition for strength that history has already shown to be a fatal trail for humanity. “
In a Facebook post, he added: “I have been involved in several campaigns to appeal against racism, not because it seems smart but because we are all equal and we all deserve the same opportunities in life.
“Eyes open friends, populism says it is undeniable to score a goal, but scoring a goal requires many tactics and techniques. “
Now 38, Quaresma hasn’t had a club since leaving Portugal’s elite Vitoria de Guimaraes this summer. But he remains a tough icon and continues to apply this force to the Roma community. She recently formed the country’s first women’s team made up of Roma women and celebrated the good fortune of Nininho Vaz Maia, a singer who caused a sensation with his performances.
“Last night, a gypsy filled the Colosseum (the largest concert hall in Porto)!I am very proud of the achievements of Roma in our society. Only with hard paints can we triumph over intolerance,” he wrote on Instagram.
Insisting that he has won many awards and is not in a position to retire, Quaresma and his influential voice will likely remain active in football for some time. Plan a coach once he hangs up the cleats. And the fight is far from over for Portugal’s Roma.
“For the persecution and hollowing out of our culture, our life and even our identities before the 1974 revolution, we deserve an apology,” marques says.
“We were guarded through the police and we had to move because we couldn’t be more than 24 hours in a post. We were the most attacked network in the country.
“Other countries have apologized to their Rome, but Portugal has not. I can only hope that one day we will see what we have lived through and what we are still going through here.
Advertise with us: 0711 046 000 · [email protected]