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Tolerance Du Voyage

Nomadic lifestyle of France’s Gypsies under attack from new law

France’s centuries-old Gypsy population is feeling blue. The 2018 “Loi Carle” law is making the traditional roving lifestyle of the Gens du Voyage, as they are officially known, prohibitively expensive. An influx of destitute Roma from Eastern Europe is also exacerbating the non-nomadic majority’s deeply entrenched suspicions regarding Gypsies.

RT meets Hénoc Cortes Lopez, a straight-talking French Gypsy rapper, Korbak, a Gypsy activist and Yellow Vest, and Aurélie Garand, whose petty criminal brother was killed by police in murky circumstances. Former Senator, Carle discusses the problems that prompted him and fellow lawmakers to tighten the rules. Meanwhile, in a Northern Paris shantytown, Moldovan Roma groups are finding their feet in their new French homeland.

A French Gypsy holds a cock while Henoc Cortes Lopez, a gens du Voayge rapper, looks on. Still taken from RTD documentary Tolerance du Voyage.
France's Gypsies, the Gens du voyage, are a varied population defying sterotypes. Still, some like to maintain traditions such as cock fighting.


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