The Political Significance of the first National Gypsy Minority Self- Government (Országos Cigány Kisebbségi Önkormányzat)
Publisher: Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe Volume: 24 pages, pdf Description: Hungary is a small country with a lot of history. Hungary is a small country with a large Roma minority. It is therefore not surprising that Roma in Hungary are making history. Despite the existence of Roma/Gypsy populations in almost every European state, Hungary is the first country to construct a nationwide network of legally recognized, publicly financed and popularly elected institutions for the representation of their interests (the minority self-government system). In April 1995 the first National Gypsy Minority Self-Government (NGMS-G) was elected with a four-year mandate. This development has put Hungary in the forefront of states seeking to mediate the changing circumstances of a large Roma/Gypsy population through a representative political mechanism specifically constructed for that purpose.