8 April: The Roma Nation Asserts Its Sovereignty

8 April, World Roma Day, is not a symbolic celebration. It is the public enactment of Roma sovereignty—a political system that has endured for centuries, evolved without territory and governed without statehood. This day is not simply about being seen. It is a coordinated affirmation of a deeper truth: that Roma, long excluded from European institutions, have developed and sustained their own system of governance—not built on conquest or coercion but on cohesion, memory and collective will. Roma sovereignty is not an emerging idea. It is a practiced reality. And 8 April is its most visible, disciplined and strategic expression.

A Sovereign Tradition Beneath the Surface

Roma have lived under nearly every political regime in Europe—from empire to feudalism, from fascism to communism to liberal democracy. We have been governed without protection and ruled without recognition. Yet in every era, we governed ourselves. Beneath the dominant systems that tried to erase us, we built continuity—legal, cultural and political. Our governance wasn’t missing. It was the architecture beneath the wallpaper: hidden but holding everything in place. What political theory fails to see, history confirms: we did not need the state to govern. We built networks beneath it. We adapted, resisted, survived and progressed.

This is why, for Roma, statelessness has never meant powerlessness. It has meant strategy. Statelessness was not the absence of order. It was a deliberate unanchoring—a way to stay mobile when others built walls that turned to cages. Our mobility was not weakness—it was design: a political logic that allowed flexibility, protection and autonomy. Oral, relational and adaptive, our systems endured not in spite of statelessness, but because of it. We refused the state’s exclusionary terms and in doing so preserved our own terms.

Muscle Memory of a Nation

That system of governance lives in memory, not in statute books—practiced through ritual, story, obligation and accountability. Our law is not enforced by the state. It is passed hand to hand, voice to voice, binding not by fear, but by memory. We have never mistaken recognition for legitimacy. For us, legitimacy is what lasts. And our law has lasted.

Sovereignty in Action

And this sovereignty is not frozen in the past. It is alive in the present. Across Europe, Roma are building power in different sectors. In culture, we assert authorship with brilliance—through film, music, literature and art that challenge erasure. In education, we are training a new generation not only to succeed within systems, but to reform and make them work for the many. 

In entrepreneurship, we are creating businesses rooted in reciprocity—generating employment and dignity where few thought it possible. In politics, we are no longer asking to participate. We are preparing candidates, defending the vote and making institutions more accountable from within.

These are not scattered efforts. They are expressions of a system at work—Roma sovereignty in action. What once stayed below the surface now rises with intention. What was dismissed as survival now reveals itself as governance.

What Threatens Us and What Weakens Us

And yet sovereignty is never guaranteed. It must be defended—not only from external threats, but from internal erosion. For decades, we have been manipulated by those who claim to speak for democracy yet deny us its substance. Institutions posture as inclusive, and political actors invoke our identity when convenient—offering visibility without protection, consultation without power, performance without progress. From far-right nationalists to liberal technocrats, Roma lives have been used to legitimise systems that refuse to share control.

This external fragmentation is compounded by internal fractures. Ego. Tribalism. Leadership that performs but does not serve. We’ve seen individuals present themselves as bridges, but act as buffers—staying close to power while turning away from collective responsibility. We have seen ambition rewarded over service and rhetoric elevated over results.

Sovereignty Cannot Be Built on Silence

We must also confront a quieter force of fragmentation: the depoliticisation of our people in the name of religious orthodoxy. Faith, for many, has been a source of strength. But when it replaces strategy with obedience or romanticises suffering without naming the systems that cause it, it becomes an obstacle to political clarity. Sovereignty cannot be built on silence. It requires courage—to lead, to protect and to organise with discipline.

8 April Is Not a Symbol. It Is an Act of Roma Sovereignty.

Across Europe, we are growing—more strategic, more coordinated, more ambitious than ever before. In a world where political systems are faltering and legitimacy is up for grabs, we are not simply stepping forward. We are stepping into the open, with tools sharpened and a blueprint of our own. We engage not because we idealise the system, but because we understand how power moves through it. We build institutions not to imitate the state, but to correct what it has failed to deliver. We don’t wait for permission to govern. We organise as those who already do. 

8 April is when it all converges. It’s a date that affirms our past, activates our present and signals our future. It is the story of Roma sovereignty—not emerging, but enduring. Not waiting, but governing. On this day, we do not ask for recognition of that tradition. We enact it. We affirm what has always been ours: a system of governance that does not depend on the state to be legitimate or on crisis to be relevant. Roma sovereignty is not symbolic. It is existential—to our people, to our future and to the reimagining of political life in Europe.