Hungarian mayor has to pay exorbitant fine for refusing to take down the Szekler flag
According to Mikó Imre Minority Rights Legal Aids Service, the mayor of Miercurea Nirajului/Nyárádszereda is one of many Hungarian local officials who has been caught up in legal battles in recent years for putting up the Szekler flag on the buildings of the local administration.
Mayor Sándor Tóth lost the case in court and was asked to remove the regional symbol of Szeklerland. He refused to comply because, like many others, he felt the systematic attacks against the symbols of the Hungarian community to be unjust and a double standard, considering – as our organisation has repeatedly signaled – that other historical regions in Romania, such as Bucovina and Moldova, can use their symbols freely.
For refusing to take down the flag the mayor of Miercurea Nirajului/Nyárádszereda was fined with 70,000 RON (around 15,000 euros).
The ruling in itself is extremely unjust, given the above mentioned double standard, not to mention the extremely high penalty. This incident is further proof, in a series of many such cases, that despite numerous international recommendations to the contrary,
Romanian authorities continue to blatantly disregard the right of the Hungarian community to use its national and regional symbols.
Source: Mikó Imre Minority Rights Legal Aids Service
