Minority Monitor presents: Authorities and politicians promoting hate against minorities

In support of FUEN’s MUTE HATE SPEECH campaign, the Minority Monitor project mapped and will continue to map cases of hate speech against minorities in all of its forms – written, verbal, and visual – disseminated through media, online platforms, art, street art, or aggressive acts.

Within just a month after the first call for inputs, eight member organisations from seven countries submitted 40 cases to the Minority Hate Monitor, ranging range from hate speech to assaults and vandalism, all targeting national minorities and/or their members.

FUEN continues to collect cases, which will be published on a rolling basis. Your contribution is crucial in this fight against hate speech. To provide input, please use this reporting form.   

The cases were processed and grouped in several thematical lines for reporting purposes. The current article introduces the cases of 

Politicians and Institutions Disrespecting Minority Rights

So far, eight such cases were reported to the Minority Monitor by three minority organisations from three European states—Greece, Poland, and Spain (Catalunya). The cases, dating from 2017 to 2023, reveal that verbally promoting hatred at the political level or enacting discriminatory practices at the institutional level is happening in many places in Europe.

Either addressing minority members as "spies", referring to a community as a "nazi" structure or making continuous attempts to stigmatize a minority for being willing to preserve their cultural identity, populist politicians aiming to gain support based on hatred of diversity are harmful both for their societies and for Europe as a whole. Promoting intolerance breaches cohesion, but it is also a security challenge.

When, however, the adopted discriminatory practices by the authorities are accepted and supported by majorities, then hatred becomes institutionalised. Minorities are not only punished for seeking their language rights but also for being willing to preserve their minority identity.

Head over to the Minority Monitor to consult the eight cases presented!