Far-right weaponising anti-Roma hate in EU elections

"Gypsies must obey the law," said one of the banners of Portugal's far-right presidential candidate André Ventura, from the Chega party, in his current election campaign.

It is a message that critics say exemplifies the rising anti-Roma sentiment sweeping across Europe ahead of a critical election year.

As Portuguese voters head to the polls on Sunday (18 January) in what is expected to be a tight race, Ventura's openly discriminatory rhetoric toward Roma has attracted international attention and raised alarm about the normalisation of hatred toward Europe's largest ethnic minority.

Recent opinion polls saw Ventura in the lead with 22 percent, followed by the social democrat António J. Seguro with 20 percent.

The liberal Cotrim Figueiredo is in a close third place with 19 percent.

As none of the candidates is likely to win half of the votes in the first round, the election is expected to be followed by a runoff, for the first time since 1986 and only the second time in Portugal's young democratic history.

A court in Lisbon ordered Ventura to take down the campaign billboards directly discriminating against Roma.

And by now the original billboards have been taken down, but according to the Roma Foundation for Europe, Ventura was seen putting up new posters feeding into the same racist narrative.

In Portugal, 63 percent of Roma surveyed said they had experienced discrimination in the past year - the second highest rate recorded in Europe – according to data published by the EU's Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA).

But anti-Roma racism is a structural problem all over Europe.

While the EU has set up a strategic framework to stop discrimination against Roma, a report by the FRA in the autumn of 2025 also found that no EU member state is likely to meet the targets set for 2030.

Hateful campaigns, especially against Roma, have proven a successful strategy for far-right parties in Europe "because they generate massive support," said Mensur Haliti, vice president for democracy at the Roma Foundation for Europe.

Anti-Roma rhetoric often peaks during election time to attract far-right voters.

In his opinion, one reason is that Roma don't have their own country to step in to protect them, but also because "there is a fertile ground of historical hate towards Roma. It's very easy to weaponise."

Populist parties are trying "to create an 'us versus them' narrative. Roma, for historical reasons, are always others, an outside group. That outside group is then weaponised for the state's failings, but also for many other structural problems".

"This is how the far right starts normalising violence ... at the societal but also institutional level," he said.

Meanwhile, repercussions for political actors are slim.

Many governments and also the EU stay quiet or voice only cautious criticism of anti-Roma campaigns.

In November, for instance, Slovenia's government was accused of anti-gypsyism after passing a law that would allow police to raid and surveil homes in “high-risk” areas. 

According to an EU Commission spokesperson in November, Slovenian authorities upheld fundamental rights in implementing this law.

But Haliti voiced a different view: "This is almost an anti-terrorist law. It's very much targeted as a collective punishment against Roma in the country."

"The danger is not only immediate harm to Roma. We have seen what begins with Roma inside the country spreads. Because once oppression is normalised against one under-protected group, it extends to others," he said.

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