RMDSZ

Hungarian foreign minister held talks in Romania

Good Hungary-Romania relations clearly serve the interests of Hungarians and ethnic Hungarians in Romania, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Friday after meeting counterpart Teodor Melescanu in Bucharest.

“Both Hungary and Romania have done much towards fulfilling this purpose in recent times,” the minister said.

Progress has been made in such sensitive areas as relaunching the Catholic secondary school in Targu Mures (Marosvásárhely), the amendment of the education law and regulations on textbooks, Szijjártó told MTI.

“We greatly appreciate the Romanian government fulfilling its promise to relaunch the Catholic lyceum of Marosvásárhely so that Hungarian children in Marosvásárhely can again study in a Catholic Hungarian school from September,” he said. Regulations linked to the amendment of the Romanian educaton law have been brought into line with the recommendations of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), he noted. Also, the regulations on textbooks have been amended in Romania in a way that allows Hungarian teachers to prepare textbooks for Hungarian children, he said.

“All these changes point in a positive direction from the point of ethnic minorities in Romania, Transylvania and Szeklerland,” Szijjártó added.

These achievements contribute to a strategy of rebuilding trust between the two countries that will help resolve difficult issues, he added.

Concerning additional areas discussed with his counterpart, Szijjártó said it was important for the two countries to develop closer energy cooperation in the upcoming period. Infrastructure developments in Hungary and Romania will make it physically possible to transport 1.75 billion cubic metres of natural gas in Hungary’s direction annually from next year and 4.4 billion cubic metres from 2022, he said.

“We hope that American and Austrian-Romanian gas industry companies will make decisions regarding the exploration of Blak Sea gas resources as soon as possible, so we can sign the necessary contracts. We are making every effort to buy gas from Romania in the long term and the physical infrastructure for this will be in place from next year,” he added.

He said he and Melescanu had agreed to keep the border crossings at Dombegyháza and Elek permanently open in order to improve the lives of local communities. Currently, they are opened once a week.

Additionally, by the end of 2020, Hungary’s M4 and Romania’s A3 motorways will be connected and Oradea (Nagyvárad) will be accessible from Budapest by motorway, he said.

Preparations for a high-speed railway linking Budapest and Bucharest via Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár) are progressing well, with Hungary having allocated 1 billion forints (EUR 3m) for a feasibility study, Szijjártó said.

On the topic of ethnic minorities in Ukraine, the minister said:

“We view the situation … similarly. Ukraine violates the rights, laid down by international law, of ethnic minorities, taking away numerous rights affecting language use and education from both the Romanian and the Hungarian communities. We are following different strategies here but agree that international law has been breached and this must be stopped as soon as possible,” he said.

Szijjártó expressed thanks to Melescanu in connection with a vote by his MEPs in the liberal ALDE grouping against the Sargentini report. “I assured the foreign minister that Hungary, too, will not support biased political attacks against Romania launched based on the opinions of NGOs,” Szijjártó said.

In response to a question concerning the subject of the 100th anniversary of the assembly of Alba Iulia (Gyulafehervár), where representatives of the Romanian population of Transylvania proclaimed the union of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania, he said that, similarly to other occasions in the past when this issue came up, he pointed out the importance of mutual respect at the talks with Melescanu.

“It must be accepted that certain dates in history have a different meaning to different nations and countries. The same historical date can bring joy to one side and pain to the other. We must respect this and must not force the other to feel differently. I asked him that we should respect each other’s feelings and should not try to force any position on each other,” he said.

During his visit in Bucharest, Szijjártó also met house speaker Liviu Dragnea, who is also head of the Social Democratic Party, the largest party in Romania’s parliament. In the afternoon, he is scheduled to meet RMDSZ leader Hunor Kelemen, ethnic Hungarian entrepreneurs in Transylvania and church leaders.

November 9, 2018

Commemorations held in honour of 1849 Arad martyrs – Photos

The national flag of Hungary was hoisted and lowered to half-mast in front of Parliament on Saturday morning in a military salute to commemorate the leaders of Hungary’s revolution and freedom fight who were executed by Austria in 1849.

October 6 was declared a national day of mourning in 2001.

State commemorations on the square before Parliament were attended by Hungary’s President János Áder.

Later in the day, Áder attended a commemoration in Kemecse, northeast Hungary, and said that the example and faithfulness of the heroes of the 1848/49 revolution and freedom fight had strengthened in later generations of Hungarians the conviction that “freedom is an irreplaceable value that we must never give up”.

Speaking at the grave of General Mihály Répásy, the president said the desire for freedom Hungarians had in 1848/49 “was built on such a strong foundation in the soul, thoughts and values of Hungarians that it could no longer be destroyed by any of the subsequent periods”.

Attending a commemoration in Arad, Romania, foreign ministry state secretary Tamás Vargha spoke of Hungarians’ eternal desire for freedom and independence.

“This is a shared heritage of several generations, which we must not squander either,” the state secretary said, adding that Hungarians must always remain faithful to the ideals, struggles and sacrifice of their predecessors of 1848 and preserve their hard-won freedom.

Hunor Kelemen, chairman of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), said it was not enough to win freedom once. “It must be preserved, taken care of, defended again and again, shared with others, and we must be able to recognize where the boundary is where freedom, total freedom and limitless freedom begin to limit the freedom of others,” he said.

Kerepesi Cemetery

Slovakia

Commemoration october 6 — Nyárasd, Slovakia – photo: MTI

October 7, 2018

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.

Not only is the President positioning himself firmly against the broadening of linguistic rights for minorities, but he is also questioning already existing practices. In his reasoning he raised concerns over a widespread proceeding in areas where the majority of the population is Hungarian, namely the fact that local council meetings can be conducted in the language of a minority, with simultaneous interpretation being provided for Romanian councilors. Thus, a potential ruling in favour of the President’s objections would not just halt the process of updating minority rights in Romania, but it would set the issue back several decades.

Reacting to President’s objections regarding these provisions, Attila Cseke, the Senate group leader of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) declared that

the disputed provisions of the new code “appear in numerous EU agreements and international treaties ratified by Romania, as well as the in the recommendations of the Council of Europe.

So according to the President there is no need for the promotion of the use of minority languages in Romania, what is more, even the rights that have been stipulated by law for 17 years now should be cut back.”

While acknowledging that the President has a constitutional right to block a piece of legislation by raising his concerns with the Constitutional Court, in this recently released document the parts relating to perfectly reasonable clarifications and amendments concerning the use of the mother tongue by national minorities cannot be interpreted as anything else than an affront against basic linguistic rights.

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/klausiohannis/

August 3, 2018

Ethnic leaders voice support for Hungarian government’s nation policy

Leaders of Hungarian parties in neighbouring countries have voiced support for the Hungarian government’s policies aimed at helping ethnic kin retain their national identity and prosper in their homelands.

Speaking at a roundtable at the Bálványos Summer University in Romania’s Baile Tusnad (Tusnádfürdő) on Friday, László Brenzovics, head of Ukraine’s ethnic Hungarian KMKSZ party, said that

Hungary’s solidarity was instrumental in the survival of his community “amid the Ukrainian state’s anti-Hungarian attacks, efforts to curb education rights and incite hatred against the Hungarian minority”.

István Pásztor, head of Serbia‘s VMSZ party, highlighted the Hungarian government’s economic programme aimed at supporting ethnic Hungarian businesses in Vojvodina province, and said that some 11,000 entrepreneurs had benefitted from the scheme in the past two and a half years.

Ferenc Horváth, the head of Slovenia’s Hungarian community, referred to the same economic programme as well as a Hungarian kindergarten scheme, and said that

Hungarians in Slovenia have “for the first time in 100 years seen that being Hungarian is not a disadvantage but a good thing”.

Slovakia’s MKP party was represented by chairman József Menyhárt, who highlighted the Hungarian government’s scheme designed to save small Hungarian schools from closure. He also announced that his party would field a candidate for Slovakia’s presidential election in the autumn.

Róbert Jankovics, head of Croatia‘s HMDK party, said that funds from Hungary had been instrumental in improving his community’s cultural institutions. He added that Hungarian farmers in Croatia had benefitted from a total one billion forints in grants from the Hungarian economic programme.

Romanian senator Barna Tánczos, who represented the RMDSZ party, said that

Hungary’s diplomatic assistance was very important at a time of recent Romanian court rulings “stigmatising the whole community as terrorists”.

Photo: MTI

July 28, 2018

The future of Hungarian medical training is in danger in Romania

Ever since its foundation in 1945, there has been a slow but relentless effort to encumber Hungarian training at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Tîrgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely (Romania), an institution originally destined to train Hungarian doctors in their mother tongue. However, presently Hungarian students make up just 29% of the total number of students, while Hungarian teachers also constitute a mere one third in the university leadership. In practice, this makes it extremely difficult to safeguard teaching in Hungarian. It is worth mentioning that practical courses are already taught exclusively in Romanian.

Despite the fact that the Hungarian community has been asking for a separate and independent Hungarian faculty for years, instead of moving towards an acceptable solution, the situation seems to be deteriorating, as news surfaced in the past few days that the leadership of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy and those of the Petru Maior University, which is a purely Romanian university, have agreed to merge the two institutions. Despite the objections of the Hungarian professors within the senate of the University of Medicine, their votes were not enough to impede the decision.

The Hungarian community has been asking for a separate and independent Hungarian faculty for years.

Előd NAGY, Vice-rector of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Tîrgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely, expressed concern over the fact that the Hungarian leadership received no concrete assurances as to how the university would keep its multicultural character in case of a merge.

The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR/RMDSZ) released a statement in which they objected to the merging of the two universities. Hunor KELEMEN, the President of DAHR warned that such a fateful decision will lead to the cessation of Hungarian medical training in the coming years.

April 28, 2018

Over 1.2 million support minority SafePack initiative

More than 1,215,000 European Union citizens have signed the Minority SafePack European Citizens’ Initiative which seeks European Union protection for indigenous national minorities in the bloc, the founders of the initiative said on Wednesday.

The collection of signatures ended at midnight on Tuesday and the chairman of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) announced the final results at an event in Flensburg, in Germany, which was broadcast live at the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) headquarters in Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár) in Transylvania.

Lóránt Vincze said Minority Safepack was the largest scheme ever launched to promote minority rights. Official EU bodies have obligations not only towards the mainstream but to minorities, too, he said.

The final figures are not yet available because the number of signatures submitted on paper is still being calculated, he said. They will be submitted to the authorities in every country in the next few days and the authorities will have three months to check them. This will be followed by another three-month period during which the results will be discussed at various European forums, he added.

All European capitals will have to take the results of the initiative and good practices already in force seriously, and equal rights must be ensured for all minorities, he said.

RMDSZ chairman Hunor Kelemen, who was a member of the initiating committee, noted that over 303,000 signatures were collected in Romania and his party’s activists helped organise the campaign in 13 countries.

He said the European Commission would most likely deal with the issue after the 2019 European parliamentary elections, and the main task in the upcoming period would be to convince decision-makers that the proposed regulations are not aimed against anyone.

“We do not wish to take away anything from anyone but want to contribute to the future of Europe,” he said.

The initiative organised by FUEN began in April last year. The rule is that 1 million signatures must be collected in at least seven EU member states by April 3 for the EC to put the scheme on its agenda.

Featured image: www.facebook.com/MinoritySafePack

April 4, 2018

LMP urges national solidarity instead of incitement to hatred

Green opposition LMP board member Péter Ungár urged national solidarity rather than an incitement to hatred at a press conference in Budapest on Sunday.

Ungár said governing Fidesz’s “propaganda of hatred” had “reached a historical low”. He also condemned a video posted by the chairman of the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) made in Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár), Romania.

Hungary’s prime minister threatened more than 2,000 people on Good Friday, by announcing that they are on a list of enemies of the state, Ungár said.

The “completely incomprehensible” government posters of a “surging mass of people” show that “there is no end to the incitement to hatred”, he added.

The National Election Committe has rejected a petition against the posters, so LMP will turn to the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, Ungár said. LMP’s candidate for prime minister, Bernadett Széll, has asked the Constitution Protection Office to give an account of whether there really is a list of the “2,000 alleged Soros agents”, he added.

Ungar called DK’s video made in Cluj-Napoca “outrageous”,

saying that it was “an incitement of hatred against Transylvanian Hungarians in the campaign”. He added that he was especially happy that just a few days after the video was posted, the Minority SafePack initiative launched by the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) had got 1 million signatures, the threshold necessary to put the scheme on the agenda of the European Commission.

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If LMP gets a strong mandate in the upcoming general election and can participate in the government, then 15 million Hungarians can participate in governing, Ungár said. Bernadett Szél wants to become the prime minister of 15 million Hungarians; she does not want to govern by inciting hatred and turning people against each other, he added.

Photo: MTI

April 1, 2018

Minority Safepack over 1 million signatures!

Minority SafePack, an initiative seeking EU protection for the indigenous minorities in the bloc, has surpassed 1 million signatures, the amount necessary for the European Commission to put the scheme on its agenda.

The initiative was launched by the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN), which made the announcement in Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár on Thursday.

Minority SafePack calls on the European Union to “undertake legal action” to better protect ethnic minorities within the EU and support a multilingual, multicultural Europe, FUEN said.

Although the one million signatures are in place, further ones will be collected until the April 3 midnight deadline to offset potentially invalid signatures, the union said.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán congratulated Hunor Kelemen, head of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), on the initiative surpassing 1 million signatures, the PM’s press chief said.

“I was happy to hear that enough European citizens have declared that they want a Europe which jointly stands up for indigenous national minorities living in the European Union,” Orbán said in his congratulatory letter. “We are proud that the number of signatories to the initiative for the protection of national minorities launched by the Federal Union of European Nationalities and RMDSZ has surpassed 1 million,” Orbán wrote. “Now it is up to the European Union to endorse the citizens’ initiative.”

March 30, 2018

Conference of Centrist Democrat International held in Budapest

Christian culture is a treasure and it needs to be preserved, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday at the conference of Centrist Democrat International (CDI) in Budapest, an international political group dedicated to the promotion of Christian Democrat values.

CDI is an organisation of Christian origin which considers human dignity the basis of politics, Orbán told a press conference. This is important because the search for identity is in the centre of political debate everywhere in the world, especially in Europe where migration has further intensified the issue, he added.

The meeting in Budapest decided to set up the youth arm of CDI, parties from the Caucasus moved closer to the organisation, new members were accepted from Latin America and central Europe and the majority of Hungarian parties from the region joined as members, Orbán said.

The CDI meeting in Budapest is expected to give significant impetus to the growth of the organisation, as well as central European integration, with special regard to the Western Balkans. The aim is to integrate parties from as many countries as possible and “decisions regarding this were made today”, he said.

CDI Secretary General Antonio Lopez-Isturiz, an MEP from Spain, said all member organisations of CDI fully stand by Orbán and the ruling Fidesz party at the upcoming general elections in Hungary.

The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) was accepted as a full member of CDI. In his comment on the accession, RMDSZ head Hunor Kelemen wrote that the party aims to “let the voice of the Hungarian community be heard on international forums and contribute to the development of international policies.”

Photo: MTI

February 17, 2018

Hungary, Romania agree on gas supplies

Romania will establish the technical conditions for gas exports to Hungary by 2020 in line with an agreement signed by foreign ministers Péter Szijjártó of Hungary and Teodor Melescanu of Romania in Bucharest on Monday.

From 2022, large volumes of gas extracted on the Black Sea will be available to Hungary, Szijjártó said. Hungarian companies have reserved the entire 4.4 billion cubic metres annual capacity on the Romania-Hungary supply route, he added.

“This is the first opportunity in the past few decades that Hungary can buy large volumes of gas from a non-Russian source,” he said, hailing the cooperation agreement as “historic progress towards Hungary’s energy security”.

The Romanian side agreed to build the compressors that will enable an annual supply of 1.75 billion cubic metres of gas by 2020 and this will be expanded to 4.4 billion by 2022.

“Hungary’s government has decided to build the missing pipeline link between the central gas distribution hub in Városföld and Vecsés near Budapest, where the Slovak-Hungarian gas pipeline ends. With this link, the north-south gas corridor, a facility crucial for national security in central Europe, will be complete,” he said.

The two countries agreed that the first TGV-type rail link of the region should be established between Budapest and Cluj (Kolozsvár) in central Romania. The Hungarian government has earmarked 1 billion forints (EUR 3.3m) for the feasibility study of the project, Szijjártó said. He added that Hungary has nothing against Romania’s plan to extend the line to Bucharest.

Hungary and Romania have agreed to convert two out of ten existing temporary border crossings into permanent, round-the-clock facilities.

Szijjártó also met the speakers of Romania’s two-chamber parliament and leader Hunor Kelemen of the ethnic Hungarian RMDSZ party.

Szijjártó discusses Ukraine education law with Romanian colleague

No minority in Ukraine can suffer a violation of their rights to education, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.

The law, passed last autumn, bans post-primary-level education in minority languages.

Szijjártó and Melescanu agreed that they would continue to cooperate in their opposition to the law so that Ukraine cannot violate the acquired rights of its ethnic minorities.

The two officials were also in agreement that the Ukrainian government should discuss the law with the country’s minority groups before implementing it. Kiev must also respect the Venice Commission’s recommendations in connection with the law, Szijjártó said.

He reiterated that the Hungarian government wants to continue cooperating with Romania on the issue of the Ukrainian education law based on mutual respect.

“One aspect of this is that we mutually respect the rights of minorities in line with European standards and view them as assets,” Szijjártó said.

Szijjártó said the Hungarian government was paying close attention to the situation of a church school in Targu Mures (Marosvásárhely) whose operation had been suspended by Romania last year. The government trusts that Romania will honour a promise made by Parliamentary Speaker Liviu Dragnea to resolve the school’s situation, Szijjártó added.

“We are continuously monitoring this situation and we are also in contact with the leaders of the [ethnic Hungarian] RMDSZ party.”

February 6, 2018

‘Transylvanian Hungarians know whom to vote for’, RMDSZ leader says

It makes no sense for Socialist and Párbeszéd leaders to campaign in Transylvania as ethnic Hungarians know whom to vote for in Hungary’s forthcoming general election, Hunor Kelemen, leader of the ethnic Hungarian RMDSZ party, told local news portal maszol.ro on Saturday.

Late on Friday Kelemen held talks with Socialist leader Gyula Molnár and Socialist-Párbeszéd PM candidate Gergely Karácsony on Romanian-Hungarian relations and the aspirations of the Hungarian community.

Expounding his party’s position, Kelemen said that the policy of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance towards Hungarian communities abroad was “good and should be continued”.

“They have asked me what they should do during the campaign in Transylvania. I told them sincerely that nothing. Campaigning is a waste of time and energy for them as Hungarians in Transylvanian clearly know whom they will vote for,” Kelemen said.

Molnar: Left wing aims to rebuild ties with ethnic Hungarian communities

The Hungarian left wing seeks to develop a new type of relationship with ethnic Hungarian communities in neighbouring countries, based on respect for acquired rights and transparency in Hungarian government support, Socialist leader Gyula Molnár said in Targu Mures (Marosvásárhely), in central Romania, on Saturday.

“A more predictable, calmer and more balanced policy for Hungarian communities abroad . would yield better results,” he told a press conference.

The Socialists welcome the recent increase in funds provided by Hungary for these communities and would not cut support if it comes to power, Molnár said. He added, however, that the transparency of government support should be restored.

Molnár reiterated that once in power, the Socialists would retain the voting rights of ethnic Hungarians abroad.

Gergely Karácsony, the joint PM candidate of the Socialists and the Parbeszed party, said that the voting rights of ethnic Hungarians abroad should by no means be withdrawn “as some opposition parties” proposed.

Photo: facebook.com/kelemenhunor.rmdsz

February 4, 2018

Central Europe set model for world 450 years ago, says Hungarian parliament speaker

Central Europe set a model for the world 450 years ago which it could do this time around again, the Hungarian parliamentary speaker said in Turda (Torda), in western Romania, on Saturday.

László Kövér addressed a ceremony marking the 450th anniversary of the Torda Edict, the very first law to declare freedom of religion.

Convened in 1568, the Diet of Torda issued an edict also known as Patent of Toleration as an early attempt to guarantee religious freedom in Christian Europe. Seen as a brave move toward religious toleration and a direct renunciation of national establishment of a single religion, the Edict of Torda legally applied to Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists and Unitarians.

Kövér said at the ceremony that accepting the call of Transylvanian representatives, he would initiate that the Hungarian parliament declare January 13 a memorial day for religious freedom to mark the Torda Edict.

He said that

the errors committed in the 20th century must not be repeated again today.

“I call on all of us to live and realise our national self-identities and endeavours not against one another, but with the mission to strengthen one another, in the spirit of national fairness,” he said.

“We must believe in this notion even if the recent unprecedentedly harsh and irrational political attack at Transylvania’s Hungarian community seems to contradict it,” Kövér said, referring to recent remarks by the Romanian prime minister.

Remarks by Mihai Tudose concerning Hungarian autonomy efforts were strongly rejected by the Hungarian foreign minister, who summoned the Romanian ambassador over the issue on Friday.

It is beyond doubt that recent remarks by Tudose which involved “basically threatening a national community and its representatives with execution are completely unacceptable and incompatible with European values and the 21st century,” Péter Szijjártó told a press conference.

Addressing the ceremony in Turda, Hungarian Human Resources Minister Zoltán Balog said

the message of the Diet 450 years ago is not simply the importance of religious tolerance and a respect towards all religions, but the importance of fighting for justice with noble tools.

While the enemy in 1568 was the Ottoman Empire, today it is the forces that not only reject but want to completely destroy Christian culture, he said.

Memmorial of of the Torda Edict, photo: MTI

In his address, Hunor Kelemen, leader of the ethnic Hungarian RMDSZ party, said it had been possible to take a decision 450 years ago that had prevented serious conflicts.

“We need such decisions today, in the 21st century,” he said.

The RMDSZ leader expressed hope that members of the Hungarian community “would not be hanged, as has recently been pledged” for any action taken in the interest of preserving their national identity and their freedom to decide their community’s future.

Photo: MTI

January 14, 2018

‘It is up to Romania to participate in regional cooperation’, says Hungarian parliament delegation

Romania should decide whether or not it wants to be involved in central European cooperation, which is taking good shape, the head of the Hungarian parliament’s foreign affairs committee said in Cluj /Kolozsvár, in western Romania, on Saturday.

Hungary has been committed to building such cooperation for several years and wants to include Romania in it, too, Zsolt Németh told a roundtable with leaders of ethnic Hungarian parties.

If Romania wants to become part of such cooperation, it should not reject cooperating with Hungary and the Hungarians, he said, adding that Romania’s reluctance must be connected with the rights of its ethnic Hungarian community.

“The ice in Hungarian-Romanian ties has been broken and started to melt after the freeze in 2012,” he said.

Németh said that preparations for the new EU budgetary period, the EU’s upcoming Romanian presidency in the first half of 2019 and linking Hungary’s and Romania’s energy networks would offer great opportunities for building cooperation.

Németh was asked about recent remarks made by the Romanian prime minister concerning Hungarian autonomy efforts.

As we wrote before, Mihai TUDOSE, Romania’s Prime Minister threatened to hang those Hungarians from Transylvania, who hoist the Szekler flag, the unofficial regional symbol of three Romanian counties.

Mihai Tudose’s remarks were strongly rejected by the Hungarian foreign minister, who summoned the Romanian ambassador over the issue on Friday. It is beyond doubt that the remarks which involved “basically threatening a national community and its representatives with execution are completely unacceptable and incompatible with European values and the 21st century,” Péter Szijjártó told a press conference in Budapest.

Németh said that

Tudose “had the right to choose this form of political suicide, [.], adding that a politician in Europe would normally not really survive such statements”.

Németh welcomed the recently announced cooperation of Hungarian parties in Transylvania and added that Hungary’s parliamentary election set for April 8 had a stake for the region’s Hungarian community as well.

Addressing the roundtable, Bálint Porcsalmi, acting president of the RMDSZ party, said Romania and Hungary would sooner or later enter into cooperation because that is what their common economic interests dictate. Improving ties between the two countries is vital for the Hungarian community in Transylvania, too, he said.

Tibor T Toró, acting president of the EMNP party, welcomed the unity demonstrated by Hungarian parties with their joint declaration on autonomy. He said the Romanian prime minister’s remarks brought members of the Hungarian community closer.

January 14, 2018

Romania’s Prime Minister threatens to hang Hungarians

Mihai TUDOSE, Romania’s Prime Minister threatened to hang those Hungarians from Transylvania, who hoist the Szekler flag, the unofficial regional symbol of three Romanian counties.

The Prime Minister said this after the presidents of the three Hungarian parties from Transylvania signed a joint statement regarding autonomy. The declaration adopted in Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár by UDMR/RMDSZ, PCM/MPP and PPMT/EMNP briefly enumerates the principles meant to clarify their common stance on the various notions of autonomy. The Romanian politicians and public figures reacting to this story completely rejected the idea, saying that it is unacceptable and unconstitutional to speak about autonomy in Romania.

In a talk-show entitled Jocuri de putere (Power games) on Realitatea TV, which aired on the 10th of January, Prime Minister Mihai TUDOSE shockingly suggested the hanging of those who support autonomy. He declared that, as Prime Minister, his stance on autonomy is the same as his view on people hoisting the Szekler flag:

“I clearly stated that if the Szekler flag will wave, then those who put it up will also wave next to the flag.”

Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose threatens to hang Hungarians from Transylvania

The Hungarian organisations in Romania unanimously condemned the statement of the Prime Minister. In a press release the Szekler Council of Local Representatives called it an outrageous provocation and asked the Prime Minister to apologise from the Szekler people for offending their dignity and threatening their physical wellbeing.

Moreover, the Prime Minister’s statement was also condemned by UDMR/RMDSZ, its executive president, Bálint PORCSALMI calling it primitive and medieval. “The Prime Minister can agree or disagree with a political statement or a political project, but he cannot send those with whom he disagrees to hang” – said PORCSALMI.

The Mikó Imre Minority Rights Legal Services Assistance considers the Prime Minister’s statement to be intimidating and unworthy of his office. We believe that under no circumstances can the prime minister of a democratic state threaten the national communities living in that country with barbaric and medieval aggression and physical annihilation.

Regarding the issue, Erika BENKŐ, the president of the Mikó Imre Minority Rights Legal Services Assistance declared:

“Although we had expected that in the year of the centennial Hungarians in Transylvania would be exposed to ever more violent attacks, the Prime Minister’s threats to hang Hungarians surpass all limits.

This tone is frightening, unworthy, primitive and it shakes the Hungarian community’s sense of security. Romania is a country governed by the rule of law and the Prime Minister must conduct himself accordingly. The Mikó Imre Minority Rights Legal Services Assistance will notify the competent authorities and the international community regarding the Prime Minister’s menacing behaviour towards the Hungarian community. We find the dark remarks of the Prime Minister, reminiscent of the medieval age, to be extremely worrisome and frightening.

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January 13, 2018

Orbán: Hungary prepared to help Romania deter migrants

Hungary would prefer to help Romania protect its eastern border against migration than build a fence on the Hungarian-Romanian border, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said.

“Sooner or later an effective border seal will be needed on [Romania’s] eastern borders,

otherwise Romania will be overwhelmed by migrants and we Hungarians would then have to build a fence on the Romanian border.

We certainly want to avoid that, and if it comes to it we will gladly help Romania protect its eastern borders,” Orbán said in an interview to Hungarian-language daily Bihari Napló published in Oradea/Nagyvárad on Wednesday.

He said he had high hopes for the Orthodox church and the Romanian political leadership and trusts that they also believe Romania’s future and its Christian future are at stake. Romania and Hungary can have a successful cooperation on this basis in the years ahead, Orbán said.

Orbán added that he expects “central Europe’s great decades” to be starting now.

“Poles, Czechs, Hungarians and Slovaks will certainly score serious successes together and I could even add the Slovenes.

We’ll need to settle certain issues with the Croats at first. The Serbs clearly want to join in the central European success story. It is obvious that ethnic Hungarians in Romania have a place in this upswing,” Orbán said. “It is up to Romanians to decide whether they can join the central European success story in cooperation with Hungarians, launching joint economic projects and setting common goals”, Orbán said.

“We could find a form of cooperation under the arrangements of V4 plus Romania

which would eventually result in higher living standards, greater security and better perspectives also for Romanians in Romania. We’ll keep that gate open,” Orbán added.

At the same time, he said it was the task of the Hungarian government to protect the interests of ethnic minority Hungarians at international forums and in bilateral relations. He cited the relaunch of the Roman Catholic Secondary School in Targu Mures (Marosvásárhely) as a concrete issue that needs to be resolved and also the speeding up of the restitution of nationalised former church property which he said currently proceeds “at a snail’s pace”. Hungary’s policy for ethnic minorities abroad must not be limited to rights protection, he added.

“We must discuss these issues with Romanians and at the same time, open the gate with our other hand to enable Romanians enter the central European economic area.

We have managed to establish a form of cooperation with Serbia which benefits Serbs and also ethnic Hungarians living there. We are progressing well with Slovenia and cooperation is excellent also with the Slovaks. We expect to be able to hold hands with Romanians in the framework of mutually beneficial economic cooperation,” he said and cited Hungary’s economic development schemes.

Orbán said he had formed a “promising personal relationship” with Liviu Dragnea, the leader of the ruling Social Democrats, during talks about the closure of a school in Targu Mures (Marosvásárhely) attended mostly by Hungarian students. Hungary had said it would not support Romania’s OECD membership until the issue was resolved, a decision that was revoked after promises from Dragnea to take steps on the issue.

‘I would like to forge such ties between our respective ruling parties themselves, our different party persuasions notwithstanding”, he said.

Commenting on marking Romania’s centenary in 2018, Orbán said “the Romanians deserve honesty from us and vice versa. We have to survive 2018 with both communities feeling they have pulled through an emotionally complicated period without harm to their dignities”, he said.

On the topic of autonomy of the Transylvanian region in light of recent developments in Catalonia, Orbán said the Hungarian government was not commenting on Catalonia, as it considered them to be Spain’s internal issue. Broaching the topic of autonomy raises a lot of mistrust, Orbán noted.

“In regions where we focus on pragmatic help instead of theoretical questions, such as Vojvodina, the Serbs have understood that they can come to agreements with us … ” Orbán said.

“We are not quite there yet with Romania”, he added.

In Romania, the Hungarian government has managed to bridge old grievances with the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), Orbán said. The Hungarian government is bound to cooperate with parties that Hungarians in the region trust, he said. The last election results showed the preferences of Hungarians in Transylvania, he said, adding,

“I like working” with RMDSZ-head Hunor Kelemen.

Orbán asked ethnic Hungarians to register to vote in Hungary’s general election in spring 2018.

Photo: MTI

October 4, 2017

‘The future is written in Hungarian’, says Orbán in Kolozsvár/Cluj – UPDATE

Speaking at an event in Cluj/Kolozsvár, in north-western Romania, marking the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said an “era of national pride” would sweep over the whole of the Carpathian Basin. “The future is written in Hungarian,” he declared. Also the leaders of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) held talks on strengthening ties..

Maintaining Hungarian communities, he said, is one of the precepts of the national mission, which “is to fight to ensure that people can prosper, study in Hungarian, and live as Hungarians in the land of their birth”.

Asking whether the strength required for the next 500 years still exists, the Prime Minister declared: “Deep and strong are the roots that sustained us after the Battle of Mohács and our country’s division into three, and after we were hacked into five parts almost a hundred years ago; they sustained us throughout the years of communist dictatorship and also in recent decades”.

“If we have succeeded in remaining upright, like an oak tree, even under the weight of 500 years of history, then we shall continue to stand tall throughout the next five hundred years”, Mr. Orbán said.

“Five hundred years ago the Reformation was the answer to a Europe that had set out on the wrong path”, he noted, asking whether there is a “Reformed remedy” for Europe’s current cultural exhaustion, economic retreat, demographic decline and surrender in the face of foreign cultures.

Mr. Orbán outlined his belief that five hundred years ago the Reformation had also mapped out the correct path for the continued survival of the Hungarians, had created Hungarian language literature and had “established the border fortress system of national resistance: Protestant schools”. He stated that the churches’ messages for Europe, the Western world and Hungary today are: “Remain how God created you. Remain true to your nationality, sex and faith. Preserve order, and order will preserve you. Preserve your churches and schools and preserve yourself in Christianity, and Christianity will preserve you”. He pointed out that in 1989 Romania also set out on its road to freedom from the Reformed parish of Temesvár (Timișoara).

“All this both provides encouragement to people today and presents them with a task”, he asserted: “A task to preserve and continue the unique intellectual and cultural tradition that the churches of the Reformation created here in Transylvania, the cradle of European freedom of religion. We must inhabit this intellectual and geographical area, just as it is also our task to create a home in it for future generations of Hungarians”.

“Though dispersed and separated by borders, the Hungarians are still the members of a common body”, he said, adding that

“We are building a unified Hungarian nation that has joint goals and joint tasks, and which now also makes joint decisions”.

Mr. Orbán said there there is a shared interest in a future in which the relationship between the Romanian and Hungarian nations is balanced, and in which the rights of Hungarians are also recognised: “It is in our mutual interest to have a future in which the closure of a school can only be a malfunction in the system and some kind of mistake, and not a normal feature of life”. He added that “It is in our mutual interest to have a future in which no Hungarian or Romanian community can be stripped of its right to study in its own language. It is in our mutual interest to have a future in which a rising Hungary is linked to an emerging Romania; a future in which the countries of the Visegrád Group, which are the motors of the European economy, are linked to Romania”.

Speaking to his audience of theology students, Mr. Orbán declared: “After years of decline and confinement, there will now follow an era of growth, prosperity and expansion, an era of heads held high and national pride – not only in Hungary, but throughout the entire Carpathian Basin; and in this task Protestant congregations are the Hungarian nation’s forward garrisons.

Your task will be to gather together your families at your posts and tell them that the future will be written in Hungarian”.

He also added that the period ahead will be one in which the limits to growth and fulfilment are not external, but internal. “The span and scale of our achievement will be that allowed by our courage, determination, talent and integrity”, he said. The Prime Minister asked the theology students to be proud of the fact that, as Protestant ministers, they will have the opportunity to launch the next five hundred years of the Hungarian nation.

Those attending the event were able to watch the Prime Minister’s speech on screens set up in the courtyards of the Protestant Theological Institute.

Fidesz, RMDSZ leaders agree to strengthen ties between countries

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Human Resources Minister Zoltán Balog and Zsolt Németh attended the meeting, Bertalan Havasi said. The parties discussed the economic situations of Hungary and Romania, and agreed that the time had come for large-scale projects linking the two economies, he said.

The Romanian delegation, headed by party leader Hunor Kelemen, called for high-level meetings between the countries.

The two countries’ foreign ministers are to meet within days, Havasi said.

Hungarian-Romanian cooperation on the issue of the Ukrainian law restricting minority education rights is a great step forward in bilateral relations,

the parties agreed.

Photo: MTi

October 1, 2017

Hungary’s FM: Romania tolerating Hungarian party campaigning in Transylvania

Romania has raised no objection to Hungarian parties campaigning in Romania in the run-up to the 2018 general election, Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister, told Romanian public television (TVR) on Monday afternoon.

Interviewed by TVR’s Hungarian section last week, Szijjártó said his Romanian counterpart Teodor Melescanu approached the issue sensibly during their Bucharest talks.

“He said: ‘It is up to you how successfully you address members of Romania’s ethnic Hungarian community during Hungary’s election campaign‘; I hope that this sober approach will be maintained.”

Romania has also recognised dual citizenship and granted it to many ethnic Romanians beyond its borders, Szijjártó said. This is why Romania has never made “serious critical remarks” about Hungary granting fast-track citizenship to ethnic kin, he added.

Szijjártó said he hoped that “Hungary’s political parties will be wise enough not to resort to methods that may expose the Hungarian ethnic community to attacks by extremist or nationalist forces. We will make every effort to avoid this, all the more so because, for historical reasons, 2018 will be a year of key importance for Romania”, Szijjártó said, referring to the centenary of the union of Transylvania and Romania.

Asked about last year’s ban on Hungary’ diplomats attending Romanian commemorations of the union on December 1, Szijjártó said he saw no reason to revise the decision. He added, however, that the Hungarian government always follows the position of the ethnic Hungarian communities in question. Accordingly, he said, last year’s decision was motivated by the stance of the ethnic Hungarian party RMDSZ on the anniversary.

Szijjártó visited Bucharest and addressed the annual meeting of Romanian diplomats on August 30 at Melescanu’s invitation.

September 5, 2017

Hungary’s FM discusses in Bucharest border crossing facilities, Hungarian institute

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó and his Romanian negotiating partner came to an agreement on the permanent opening of two temporary border crossing stations that are currently operating with limited opening hours, and on the opening of a Hungarian Cultural Institute in Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), in Bucharest on Wednesday.

Mr. Szijjártó is in Romania at the invitation of Minister of Foreign Affairs Teodor Meleșcanu, and in the evening will be holding a lecture at the annual meeting of Romanian ambassadors. In the morning, the Minister met with President of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) Hunor Kelemen, after which he held talks with Foreign Minister Meleșcanu and Deputy Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.

In a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI following the negotiations, Mr. Szijjártó called trade relations between Hungary and Romania a success story that facilitate favourable developments in relationships between the two countries in other fields.

Romania is Hungary’s second most important export market, he added, indicating that Hungarian enterprises exported 4.6 billion euros worth of goods to Romania last year, and exports increased by a further 16 percent according to figures for the first five months of the year. “If things are going well for the Romanian economy and Romania imports a lot, that is something from which Hungarian enterprises profit greatly”, the Minister stated. Mr. Szijjártó also pointed out that Hungarian oil company MOL is Romania’s 15th largest enterprise, and OTP Bank is the 14th strongest bank in the country, adding that it was most welcome that the Romanian Government “does not have a negative approach towards OTP’s intentions” to further increase its market share.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister said his invitation to attend the annual meeting of Romanian ambassadors was an indication of mutual trust, adding that a few years ago it would have been difficult to imagine Romania’s Foreign Minister attending the Hungarian ambassadors’ meeting, and Hungary’s Foreign Minister holding a lecture at the Romanian ambassadors’ meeting.

With relation to the opening of the two new border crossing stations, Mr. Szijjártó said the Romanian Government would be giving the Foreign Ministry a mandate to conduct negotiations, during the course of which it will be rapidly decided which two of the temporary border crossing stations opened in February would remain open permanently. He also told the press that a second motorway border crossing station would also soon open along the Hungarian-Romanian border. By the end of 2019, Hungary’s M4 motorway will reach the border, where border crossing infrastructure will also be constructed, and in the meantime Romania will also make every effort to assure that its M3 motorway also reaches the border.

Mr. Szijjártó also reported on advancements within the field of energy. Natural gas can currently only be transported from Hungary to Romania via the gas interconnector linking the two countries’ natural gas networks. However, Romania has begun work on the development projects that will enable Hungary to purchase 1.75 billion cubic feet of natural gas-a-year from Romania by the end of 2019 and 4.4 billion cubic feet-a-year by the end of 2022.

Only a few decisions concerning appropriation are required to also enable the two countries’ electricity networks to become interconnected between Békéscsaba and Nagyvárad (Oradea), he also announced.

With relation to the opening of the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), Mr. Szijjártó said the Romanian Government had also given the Foreign Minister a mandate to negotiate this issue, and talks are expected to close successfully within a few days.

Mr. Szijjártó said the “best news of the day” was that his Romanian negotiating partners had reacted positively to Hungary’s plans to launch a Transylvanian economic development programme, after having successfully launched similar initiatives in Vojvodina and Transcarpathia. “The Germans are already working on a similar programme in Romania, and we would like to launch our scheme based on the German model. The approach of the Romanian Government is absolutely positive, and only a few technical details need to be agreed upon to assure that the programme conforms to Hungarian, Romanian and EU regulations”, he said.

The Minister said that, as always, his latest visit to Romania had once again begun with a meeting with the President of the RMDSZ, with whom he discussed issues that require solutions in Hungarian-Romanian relations, which he duly raised during later negotiations with Romanian officials.

“I asked the Romanian officials to help solve the two education-rerlated issues in Marosvásárhely (Târgu Mureș): those involving the Roman Catholic Secondary School and the University of Medicine and Pharmacy. I believe that with political will and a little goodwill, it will be possible to solve these two issues in the near future”, the Minister declared.

“We need all possible opportunities to improve mutual respect and build on common success stories. Through improving trust and creating success stories, we can reach a state of affairs in which we can also put in order our outstanding issues”, Mr. Szijjártó said in his statement to MTI.

During the course of the afternoon, the Hungarian Foreign Minister will also hold bilateral talks with Speaker of Romanian Parliament Liviu Dragnea and Chairman of the Senate Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu.

Photo: MTI

August 30, 2017