It will be mandatory to provide Hungarian inscriptions on monuments in Romania

Just recently, the lower house of the Romanian Parliament has accepted legislation that positively affects the Hungarian minority living in the country.

From now on, it will be mandatory that, on monuments related to the Hungarian minority in any way, the plaques placed there must also contain the text in Hungarian.

There is a large Hungarian population living in Romania because of the Treaty of Trianon, which annexed Transylvania and a significant part of the Eastern Great Plain. Historically, after WWII, Romanian chauvinists killed many Hungarians, and in 1965, power was taken over by Nicolae Ceaușescu, who built a personal cult, intensified political repression, and was openly anti-Hungarian.

However, history finally seems to take a turn for the better;

Nowadays, the state of Hungarians living in Romania is not desperate, as the use of their mother tongue, education in the Hungarian language, and the application for Hungarian citizenship are all allowed. Although there are still some cases of conflict between the two peoples, legislations like the one just accepted help greatly.

According to Telex, out of the 329 members of the House of Representatives, the legislation was supported by 277 members, while 9 abstained, and no member opposed the decision.

Since the Senate has already accepted it, now only the President needs to sign the legislation before it can take effect.

The amendment of the law to include Hungarian inscriptions on monuments related to the Hungarian minority was put forward by Ödön Szabó, a representative of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR).

According to the party’s newsletter, the representative said that with this legislation, the Romanian government makes it possible that both Hungarians living in areas densely populated by the minority and Hungarians living in areas with low ethnic population can now read about the monuments relating to their history in their own language.

In relation to previous regulation, the administrative units had to apply for a permit at the Ministry of Culture to be able to include Hungarian inscriptions on plaques.

Szabó said that the aim of the law amendment was to make this process rely less on paperwork and become easier, as well as to ensure to include inscription about the history of ethnic Hungarians in their own mother tongue.