The Parliament Magazine, an in house journal of the European Parliament (EP) that exists almost unnoticed but very well funded through advertisers who think that they are getting access to lawmakers, is running a MEP of the year competition. OK, bit of silliness but not essentially harmful. One of the candidates is the Hungarian Gypsy MEP called Lívia Járóka. A number of young assistants, possibly taken with her undoubted charms sent out a round robin email lobbying for her.

She is marvelous in every way according to the blurb. However one of the Bulgarians who are pretending to be MEPs while they wait for EU enlargement decided to take issue with their copy. Over to you, Dimitar Stoyanov:

Well, gentlemen, I must disagree with you. In my country there’re tens of thousands gypsy girls way more beautiful than this honorable one. In fact if you’re in the right place on the right time you even can buy one (around 12-13 years old) to be your loving wife. The best of them are very expensive – up to 5,000 euros a piece, wow! Of course this is a crime according to the Penal code, Chapter Four (Crimes against the marriage, the family and the youth), Section II (Crimes against the youth), Article 191/3, punishable with 2 to 5 years of imprisonment, but I don’t think that most of the so-called “Roma rights organizations” even know about this article, and they in fact don’t care (call them what you want, they care only about anti-discrimination laws’ articles, because they pay, and crime doesn’t you now)!!! This is another story though.

So let’s get back to Miss Laroka’s nomination. Believe me, I’ve seen lots of gypsy women, but all that are at her age are much skinnier. Doesn’t she sharing the terrible suffering her people are bearing all around Europe, the poverty, the miserable conditions and the unemployment???? Well, I guess when you’re an MEP you have to put some weight on you. Have to look serious.

Thirdly, she already has received one award this year. But wait – for a youth leader? This honorable lady is almost 32 years old for the God sake! Most youth organizations are accepting members up to 26. My party is considered liberal in this criterion as our deadline is 30. Honorable Miss Laroka still does not fit. I don’t know, there’re different kinds of growth, maybe she fits in one of them.

With these justifications I won’t support Miss Livia Laroka’s nomination. Still she has my deepest regards and I wish her luck and success!!

The email system has gone frantic with dozens of MEPs and assistants frothing at the gills at Stoyanov’s comments.

This correspondence does no credit whatsoever to the European Parliament. Even if Mr Stoyanov was joking, there are certain limits of good taste even for jokes. And his comments seem to me actually racist.

Sarah Ludford
 

I think Mr Stoyanov is indeed a very young man with full of false ideologies, who needs to find a position in some oldfashioned totalitarian type of environnement.

Though such people and such ideologies should not have their place in an organization such as the EP. Democracy is not an excuse! One should not be allowed to say such things to anyone and especially a people’s representative. Knowing by heart some low articles Mr Stoyanov does not make a person be a people’s representative and I feel deeply sorry for those whom you represent.

Dear colleagues, I find the email of Mr Stoyanov unacceptable, attacking all the values we are protecting day by day, especially in the Libe committee. I ask the President of this Parliament to take immediate action in order to protect Lívia Járóka, whose personality and devotation we all respect, and to make sure that such kind of views cannot be accepted in this Parliament.

Kinga Gál
 

The party Ataka (Attack) belongs to the category of racists, xenophobes and Holocaust-deniers. Anti-Jew, anti-Turk and anti-Roma (Gypsy) they spread hatred through their websites, their own newspaper and Satellite TV station SKAT.

In Bulgaria, they have a support of approximately 14 % of the population. On the other hand, Siderov’s impunity was taken from him by the Bulgarian parliament on the account of bad behaviour.

I have always wondered why the European Parliament accepted observers with such a background...

I think that Stoyanov’s letter cannot stay without consequences and the matter should be given the serious attention of President Borrell.

Els de Groen
 

And so on. Now, yes, his comments were in bad taste, but to suggest, as some do, that because some EU politicians don’t like their point of view, despite them currently being the largest opposition party in the polls in Bulgaria, they should be bared from the Parliament is requesting what can only be described as a left liberal dictatorship. And in my mind very dangerous ground.

Mr Stoyanov is never going to be on my Christmas card list. But he has every right to be here and represent those people who vote for him and his party. If the voters want to sack him for his antics, so be it. But nobody else has that right. Not even MEPs.