Clinton prescient with International Roma Day remarks

Last Thursday, Clinton took the time to make a statement for International Roma Day that included: Most importantly, International Roma Day is an opportunity to call attention to the challenges that continue to face Europe’s ten million Roma. Protecting and promoting the human rights of Roma everywhere has long been a personal commitment for me, ...

By , copy chief at Foreign Policy from 2009-2016 and was an assistant editor from 2007-2009.
DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/Getty Images
DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/Getty Images
DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/Getty Images

Last Thursday, Clinton took the time to make a statement for International Roma Day that included:

Last Thursday, Clinton took the time to make a statement for International Roma Day that included:

Most importantly, International Roma Day is an opportunity to call attention to the challenges that continue to face Europe’s ten million Roma. Protecting and promoting the human rights of Roma everywhere has long been a personal commitment for me, and under the Obama Administration it is a priority of the United States.

Her comments were prescient indeed. Preliminary results from this weekend’s election in Hungary are showing that a far-right, anti-Roma party, Movement for a Better Hungary, or Jobbik, came in third with 16.7 percent of the vote (more than three times any other far-right party since Romania’s return to democracy in 1990) and will enter parliament. And philanthropist George Soros said last week that Roma are being scapegoated for Europe’s economic crisis. Thank goodness Clinton is standing up for the rights of Roma.

(In the photo above, a Romanian Roma family casts their ballots in the village of Sintesti on Dec. 6, 2009.)

Preeti Aroon was copy chief at Foreign Policy from 2009-2016 and was an assistant editor from 2007-2009. Twitter: @pjaroonFP

More from Foreign Policy

The USS Nimitz and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and South Korean Navy warships sail in formation during a joint naval exercise off the South Korean coast.
The USS Nimitz and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and South Korean Navy warships sail in formation during a joint naval exercise off the South Korean coast.

America Is a Heartbeat Away From a War It Could Lose

Global war is neither a theoretical contingency nor the fever dream of hawks and militarists.

A protester waves a Palestinian flag in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, during a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. People sit and walk on the grass lawn in front of the protester and barricades.
A protester waves a Palestinian flag in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, during a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. People sit and walk on the grass lawn in front of the protester and barricades.

The West’s Incoherent Critique of Israel’s Gaza Strategy

The reality of fighting Hamas in Gaza makes this war terrible one way or another.

Biden dressed in a dark blue suit walks with his head down past a row of alternating U.S. and Israeli flags.
Biden dressed in a dark blue suit walks with his head down past a row of alternating U.S. and Israeli flags.

Biden Owns the Israel-Palestine Conflict Now

In tying Washington to Israel’s war in Gaza, the U.S. president now shares responsibility for the broader conflict’s fate.

U.S. President Joe Biden is seen in profile as he greets Chinese President Xi Jinping with a handshake. Xi, a 70-year-old man in a dark blue suit, smiles as he takes the hand of Biden, an 80-year-old man who also wears a dark blue suit.
U.S. President Joe Biden is seen in profile as he greets Chinese President Xi Jinping with a handshake. Xi, a 70-year-old man in a dark blue suit, smiles as he takes the hand of Biden, an 80-year-old man who also wears a dark blue suit.

Taiwan’s Room to Maneuver Shrinks as Biden and Xi Meet

As the latest crisis in the straits wraps up, Taipei is on the back foot.