Romanian president Iohannis launches an open attack against the linguistic rights of national minorities

According to Mikó Imre Minority Rights Legal Aids Service press release, after opposition parties attacked the new Administrative Code, this week President Klaus Iohannis also sent the said law back for review to the Constitutional Court, a law that included several provisions meant to guarantee linguistic rights for national minorities.

As we have mentioned in our previous newsletters, the new Administrative Code had been passed in Parliament and was waiting to be signed by President Klaus Iohannis, who has recently released a 100-page document, in which he raised concerns regarding several provisions in the new code. Among other things, the President also questioned the legality of some of the articles relating to the use of the mother tongue by national minorities.

Repeatedly invoking the fact that the only official language in the country is Romanian, the President argued against such linguistic rights as bilingual street signs, for instance.

This despite the fact that the Council of Europe regularly mentions the use of bilingual street signs in its recommendations for Romania. Iohannis also challenged a provision in the new code which says that in an administrative unit with a significant minority community, the officials working in public institutions are required to speak the language of that minority. Moreover, the new legislation includes an article expressly stating that in the municipalities where a minority community does not reach the threshold of 20%, and therefore the application of the above mentioned linguistic rights and others is not required by law, the implementation of these provisions is nonetheless not prohibited. This clarification was very important given that over the years authorities have frequently opposed local council resolutions that aimed to extend linguistic rights, precisely on the grounds that they are not required by law.