How Romani artists and activists are challenging Europe’s preconceptions

This article is part of the Breaking out: Stories of Roma empowerment special report, presented by the Roma Foundation for Europe.
After centuries of failed policies to assimilate or eliminate them, Romani people are breaking into European pop culture and mainstream politics on their own terms.
Despite setbacks in the formal political system — the new European Parliament, for example, doesn’t have a single representative from the European Union’s 6 million Roma citizens — a cohort of artists and activists are punching into the mainstream culture, defying both external stereotypes and the cultural norms of their community along the way.
Even as Roma across Europe continue to face discrimination and barriers to access basic services like housing, education and health care, this new generation is challenging outdated stereotypes and redefining what it means to be Romani in Europe today. 
Co-host of the one-year-old German offshoot of RuPaul’s “Drag Race,” Gianni Jovanovic wants to erase Germans’ persistent stigma against Roma people — and for both of his hyper-masculine cultures of origin to become “tender men.”
A self-described “gay gypsy with a lot of attachments,” Jovanovic’s is the story of Germany’s failed reckoning with the Holocaust. Born in 1978 to parents who came to Germany as migrant workers, he was seriously injured at four, when a Molotov cocktail was hurled at his house. He was assigned to a school for people with learning disabilities, because of his Roma background. 
It’s understandable, he says today, that he was wed at 14 in an arranged marriage, and a father of two before he was 18. As marginalized people, Roma feel a pressure to shore up the next generation to “guarantee family survival,” he says.
In his early 20s, Jovanovic came out as gay, and in 2015 he launched the Queer Roma initiative. He now offers workshops on intersectional discrimination, focusing beyond just Sinti and Roma to support other LGBTQ+ people from racial minorities. 
As a minister in the fast-growing Roma Protestant movement in Central and Eastern Europe, the focus of Dimitar Angelov’s efforts is developing leadership skills in others through religion.
The idea came at the request of Roma Networks, a relatively loose organization of Protestant Roma founded 10 years ago by a Chinese evangelist. Pentecostal and evangelical movements have only gained a foothold this century among Eastern European Roma, who have historically embraced Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Islam.
Working alongside an American missionary in the small town of Razlog in southwestern Bulgaria, Angelov spent the past three years developing so-called Leadership Discovery Groups based on the idea of “learning from Jesus.” The training program for aspiring nastavnitzi — Bulgarian for mentor — is tailored specifically to Bulgarian Desikane Roma, a culture that extends throughout Western Europe.
Angelov’s mission goes beyond teaching leadership skills: After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, his Youth Mission Network mobilized tens of thousands of dollars to help war refugees in Bulgaria. Angelov was cognizant of the stigma Roma face, he recounted to Christianity Today: “We do this because we are a Christian organization and we do this for the glory of God, and oh, by the way, I am Roma, and I am proud of this.”
Pretty Loud have been a voice for change in Serbia since 2014. Through their music — blending pop, rap, and traditional Romani sounds — and their lyrics in Serbian, Roman and English they can reach a vast and culturally diverse audience. The goal? To raise awareness about issues like early marriage and education, particularly for women.
The band gained international recognition at the Women of the World Festival, where they showcased a mashup music video addressing early marriages. “We want to show that a woman can be brave, strong, independent, and capable of making her own decisions,” band member Živka Ferhatović told Deutsche Welle. Confronting stereotypes about Roma women is the group’s way of fighting the patriarchy.
Their tunes caught the ear of Princess Jelisaveta Karađorđević, who invited them to perform at the Historical Museum of Serbia in 2017 and organized a gig at the British ambassador to Serbia’s residence earlier this year. Through music and activism, the 12 members seek to dismantle prejudices against Roma people globally, proving that not everyone is defined by negative stereotypes. Their message is clear: Education and empowerment can change lives.
Sisters Erika and Helena Varga are fighting to keep the Roma traditions alive while integrating them into Hungarian culture — through fashion and jewelry.
Back in 2010, the Budapest-based siblings founded the world’s first Roma fashion studio called Romani Design. They’ve grown significantly since then, continuing to preserve Romani folk art and cultural heritage and its conveyance to younger generations with their activism.

The sisters draw their inspiration from years of social fieldwork in disadvantaged Roma communities and schools, highlighting social responsibility and environmental consciousness in their designs. “I’ve seen how [Roma communities] live, what they wear, what kinds of houses they live in and what the interior design is like … These memories and experiences are completely embedded in my mind when I design something,” Helena told Euronews.
Many of their products — which include items with floral patterns, traditional Roma clothes decorated with images of the Virgin Mary and jewelry — have made it into permanent collections in museums. Helena and Erika consider fashion one of the most powerful means to bridge the gap between Roma culture and the rest of society: Their art helps reshape people’s preconceptions of the community, as they can see that the sisters’ traditions and roots “are absolutely in [their] heart and soul.”
This article is part of the Breaking out: Stories of Roma empowerment special report, presented by the Roma Foundation for Europe. The article is produced with full editorial independence by POLITICO reporters and editors. Learn more about editorial content presented by outside advertisers.