Motives and legacies behind 2008-2009 Hungarian Roma murders and apologies

Abstract

This research analyzes as hate crimes the 2008-9 Hungarian Roma mass-murders by extreme nationalists. Pertinent questions are: 'What motivated the Roma Murders?' and 'How do these motives intertwine with cultural-historical legacies to affect both the murders and later official apologies?' In examining motives, the essay shows how cultural myths of an ill-fated nation and collective memory of real historic tragedies made Hungarians receptive to an extreme nationalist ideology that transforms a national vision of tragic fate into a vision of a victorious future (Volksgeist). How Hungarian culturalhistorical heritage assigns vulnerability and disability to the Roma is explored, and why assigning the same vulnerability to victims when Hungarians apologize for their complicity in the Roma murders cannot restore social justice. The essay adds to previous research the identification of common dynamics in both the hate crimes and later apologies, demanding that a very specific apology addressed to the Roma-as equal citizens-should follow two apologies that position the Roma as less than equal Hungarians.

Addressing anti-Gypsyism with context-dependent psychological tools: Research review, meta-analysis and secondary analysis of prejudice against the Roma

“…With the emergence of Jobbik, an explicitly anti-Roma political party in Hungary, a paramilitary organisation (Magyar Gárda) appeared alongside them, normalising terror against Roma communities. The repeated reliance on criminalising and dehumanising language by politicians culminated in a racially motivated serial murder of Roma people between 2008 and 2009 (Subert, 2019;Vidra & Fox, 2014). The escalation of violence happened in less than two years in the presence of constant political propaganda against the Roma.…”