Will Romania have a Hungarian president from 2024?

Transylvanian Hungarians have the means to have strong representation in Romania and to ensure that the decisions made about them are not made without them, the foreign minister said in Miercurea Ciuc (Csíkszereda) at a campaign event of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) on Friday.

Péter Szijjártó attended a podium discussion in the company of RMDSZ leader and presidential candidate Hunor Kelemen.

He said Hungarian-Romanian relations had improved and Romania benefited from RMDSZ having been in government, as also stated by several of his Romanian negotiating partners.

“I felt a great change in Romanian political attitude towards Hungary when it became clear here in Romanian society that RMDSZ had stabilised the functioning of Romanian government and politics,” Szijjártó said. “It offered excellent professional performance in areas where it provided a minister, a boss, leaders, with Romania clearly performing well in those areas, and the Romanian people profiting from it. And we give credit to Romanian politicians for not only recognising this, but also starting to talk about it.”

Photo: FB/Hunor Kelemen

Commenting on the mechanism of developing policies for ethnic Hungarians abroad, he said that the government in Budapest did not want to say what’s good for ethnic Hungarians abroad. After representatives of ethnic Hungarian communities say what type of help they want from the mother country, it is the Hungarian government’s “plain duty” to fulfil the requests and expectations the best they can, he added. As a result, even under the circumstances of war, sanctions and inflation, the government did not allow support for ethnic Hungarians abroad to fall victim to the protective anti-inflation measures, he said.

Economic development programmes have also been initiated by ethnic Hungarian representatives abroad, he said. The government has so far supported 6,084 SMEs with 85 billion forints (EUR 208.6m), enabling investments totalling 170 billion forints in areas with ethnic Hungarian communities, he added.

“I believe that part of the Romanian political elite understands that this is a win-win situation, jobs being created and taxes getting paid here, supply possibilities expanding, and I believe it is a good way to strengthen the nation, parts of the nation, and strengthen cooperation between the country of residence and the mother country,” Szijjártó said.

Kelemen reaffirmed that it depended on the ethnic Hungarian community if RMDSZ was “in the playing field” and he asked them to vote for the ethnic Hungarian candidates on November 24 and December 1.

Strong RMDSZ in ‘whole nation’s interest’, says Szijjártó

The better result the ethnic Hungarian RMDSZ party achieves at Romania’s general election, the better Hungarian-Romanian cooperation and the life of ethnic Hungarians will be, Szijjártó said in Miercurea Ciuc (Csíkszereda) on Friday, adding that “the best possible result for RMDSZ is in the interest of the nation as a whole.”

At a press conference held jointly with Hunor Kelemen, RMDSZ’s candidate for Romanian president, Szijjártó said ensuring the best possible cooperation between Hungary and Romania and improving the living standards of Romania’s ethnic Hungarian community were two of Hungarian foreign policy’s important goals.

He said there was “a good chance” that RMDSZ would perform as well in Romania’s next legislative and presidential elections as it had in the European Parliament and local elections earlier this year.

Szijjártó said Romania’s full Schengen membership, increasing the number of crossing facilities along the Hungary-Romania border, and promotion of the Hungarian government’s economic programme would be among the top priorities in the coming period.

He added that during the remainder of Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the European Union, the government “will leave no stone unturned” to ensure Romania’s accession to Schengen.

Hungary, he added, wanted to begin work on five new border crossing points between the two countries as soon as possible.

“We’re also making preparations together for two new motorway links,” the minister said. “We’re preparing the construction of a new bridge at Magyarcsanad and a road border crossing at Kubekhaza. And I have signed an agreement with your transport minister on preparations for a Szeged-Timisoara rail line.”

Concerning the continuation of the economic development scheme, Szijjártó said the government has so far supported 6,000 businesses, generating 170 billion forints (EUR 417.2m) worth of investments.

“We are ready to build an even closer cooperation with Romania,” Szijjártó said, adding that he hoped RMDSZ would be part of the next Romanian government.

Kelemen said RMDSZ could only promote the security and survival of Romania’s ethnic Hungarian community if it had parliamentary and, if possible, governmental means to do so, for which it needed the support of Transylvanian Hungarians.

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