Since the independence of Macedonia from 1990 until today, several names with the prefix "Leaders of the Roma people", formulated through their political options, have paraded on the Roma political scene. "Roma leaders" were declared those who had a Roma political entity - a party with decent membership, but also "Roma leaders" were declared so-called. "Man Party". All those who had a "Roma" support in their political option was immediately appointed to a leadership position and appointed "Presidents for an indefinite period".
PCER, SRM, DSR, OPER, ROM, PDPR, DPR, PIR ... and a small bunch of other parties figured, (and still figure) on the Macedonian political scene, continuously following the trend, appearing in the period from 4 to 6 years mainly led by the election cycle of the country in which some Roma political parties were active in the election campaigns hoping to realize the interests of leaders who were mostly "man-party" and to employ their loved ones, and also some for maintaining their business through tender agreements.
Roma in the country according to the last census is almost 54,000 people, and 9 Roma political parties are in operation.
From that "struggle for power" and from just over 40,000 active Roma voters, all the votes have been scattered or "sold out" and the current result is - only one Roma representative in Parliament, a member of a non-Roma political party.
From that desolate struggle for power "I am the real Roma leader" brought the Roma people to this level.
Truth to be told, even if you look at the profiles of those "Roma leaders" - this is too much!
If until 10-20 years ago there might have been such names that could be said "Significant names on the Roma political scene" (Faik Abdi, Amdi Bajram, Nezdet Mustafa, Shaban Saliu ..), today unfortunately can be said with certainty that there is no such name.
After the deaths of Abdi Faik and Amdi Bajram, that vacuum called "Roma leaders" is now empty. The fact is that in PCER, even after the departure of Faik Abdi, a worthy replacement and a man with capacity have not yet been found. In the SRM, after the death of Amdi Bajram, it is time to elect a new president of the party, but is he going to fight for the status of Roma Leader, only the time will show.
In my opinion, the other "veterans" on the Roma political scene do not show any of their ambitions that they want to occupy that empty space.
It is noticeable that some civic initiatives, non-governmental organizations or informal movements want to impose themselves as a "potential" factor of the Roma people, but it is noticeable that they are also "active" only in periods of election campaign, division of functions, etc. In the "war" period, they are somehow not in the mood for field courtship among the Roma.
Maybe I am wrong, but as things are moving forward, the most probable variant is that slowly the Roma political block will continue to "grow" and will merge into the non-Roma political such as SDSM, VMRO-DPMNE, DUI and others.
It seems that it will be a long time before a new fresh young Roma political cadre comes on the scene who will be able to somehow "unite" the "Roma political voice" and represent someone - a Roma factor in the eyes of the Roma, but also in non-Roma coalition partners.
But we must still hope that there is always hope.
At the end I would say: Let us not lose the hope and we need to be awake, because "Hope is a dream - of the awake man"
