Anina Ciuciu, a 27-year-old Romanian of Roma ethnicity who emigrated together with her family to France, is running for a seat in the French Senate.

Sorbonne alumnus and future lawyer Ciuciu talked to France 24 about her journey to contest a French Senate seat in the elections to be organized next month, a journey that has been anything if not unusual. However, she wants to use it to the advantage of her marginalized, would-be constituents in Seine-Saint-Denis, a district that comprises some of Paris’s roughest suburbs.

Anina Ciuciu lives in the 20th arrondissement in Paris, but spends most of her time in Seine-Saint-Denis. She is working with two organizations, namely “La Voix des Roms” (The Voice of the Roma) and “Le Mouvement du 16 mai” (the May 16th Movement). The latter is named for the day in 1944 when Romany concentration camp detainees at Auschwitz rose up against the Nazis due to send them to the gas chambers, reports France 24.

“When Europe Ecologie – les Verts [the Green EELV party] offered me a spot on its [senate elections] list, I wasn’t immediately convinced,” she said. “I didn’t believe in politics as a means to effect change. And I had had an initial experience that I hadn’t found pleasant.”

The experience she talked about refers to the one in 2014, when former Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta named her honorary adviser on the Roma issue. “I stopped as soon as I understood that it would change nothing for the people who are suffering,” she said.

Anina Ciuciu would be the first Roma woman ever elected to the French Senate. Read the full story here.

This is not the first time when Ciuciu makes it in the international media. Back in 2012, her story was revealed by RTL France radio station.

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Anina Ciuciu on Facebook)