(MTI) – European stability requires that the issue of ethnic minorities should be settled, Bela Marko, head of the Senate group of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), told the Transylvanian Hungarian Television on Sunday.

Marko said he agreed with a recent statement of Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban, who said that Hungarians living in the Carpathian Basin were entitled to dual citizenship, collective or community rights and autonomy.

“In general, I have had a lot of disagreements with Hungary’s foreign policy, I would have preferred a dialogue with the neighbouring countries, I would have liked to see a presence on the part of the Hungarian government, but I must now agree with those suggesting in connection with the Ukrainian crisis that there is an ethnic issue waiting to be solved in Ukraine and elsewhere,”

Marko said one of the principles in settling the issue should be that borders must be left untouched. The other one, however, should be that, within country borders, solutions that could also include autonomy must be found for ethnic minorities.

Marko criticised the European Union and the United States for tolerating that the first thing the pro-European leaders who came power in Ukraine did was to try to abolish the language act.

“The United States is following a different approach on these issues to the one they followed in the 1990s. As for the European Union, I believe they should have taken a firm stand on this, and should have made it clear that there is no place for Ukrainian nationalism in Ukraine, and that the situation of other ethnic groups including Russians, Hungarians, Romanians must be radically settled.”

(MTI) – It lies in the interest of the Hungarian nation that the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) fares as well as possible in the European parliamentary elections, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen said in a TV interview.

On behalf of the Hungarian government, he asked all ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania to go to the May 25 polls and vote for the RMDSZ list.

Interviewed by the Transylvanian Hungarian Television, Semjen stressed the need to efficiently represent the interests of the Hungarian nation in the European Parliament, and push the European Union towards the values of Christian civilisation.

As member of Romania’s governing coalition, RMDSZ plays a key mediatory role between the two countries, Semjen said. He added that Hungary had always strived to maintain the best possible relations with Romania, which he called an eminent economic interest of both nations.

“Relations with Romania, however, mainly depend on the well-being and general mood of Transylvania’s Hungarian community, and the enforcement of its rights,” he said.

Photo: RMDSZ

Bucharest, March 3 (MTI) – The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) will join the Romanian government and will take the posts of deputy prime minister, environment minister and culture minister, party leader Hunor Kelemen said today.

RMDSZ has proposed Kelemen to be deputy prime minister and culture minister, and Attila Korodi the minister of environmental protection. Both of them had previously fulfilled these ministerial posts during the government of Emil Boc. Kelemen said RMDSZ will also have 14 state secretaries in the government. He told MTI after the RMDSZ permanent council meeting that Romania needs government stability, and RMDSZ can contribute to that.

RMDSZ last participated in Mihai Razvan Ungureanu’s government as coalition partner until 2012.

The parties in Hungary’s left-wing opposition Unity alliance welcome and support RMDSZ’s involvement in the third Punta government, Socialist leader and Unity’s prime ministerial candidate Attila Mesterhazy said. He expressed hope that recent problems affecting minorities, such as large infrastructure development projects in Transylvania, the issue of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Targu Mures and the use of symbols in Szeklerland, would be resolved without delay.

Photo: MTI

(MTI) – The situation of the Hungarian minority in Romania could be improved now only by means of interstate agreements between Romania and Hungary, Csaba Borboly, the president of the Harghita County Council, said in his blog today.

He called for concluding interstate agreements, saying that bills submitted for the expansion of the Hungarian minority’s rights have “routinely” failed in the Romanian constitutional court.

He made reference as an example to the constitution’s draft amendments in which the parts including proposals on matters of importance for the Hungarian minority have all been found unconstitutional by the top court.

“The only option left to ensure a solution in the long term, namely, is to conclude interstate agreements, which, to my knowledge, cannot be subject to a review by either the constitutional court or by any other courts,” said Borboly, a member of the board of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ).

Photo: www.borbolycsaba.ro

Bucharest, February 26 (MTI) – Romania’s ethnic Hungarian RMDSZ party would prefer participating in the country’s next government rather than supporting it from outside, RMDSZ chair Laszlo Borbely told MTI’s correspondent in Bucharest today, in wake of a government break-up.

The centre-left PSD government will have just a fragile majority in the 575-member parliament after the liberal PNL left the coalition. Borbely  confirmed Prime Minister Victor Ponta’s invitation to the government on Wednesday. RMDSZ currently has 26 lawmakers in the Romanian parliament.

Borbely argued that entering government would mean a stronger representation of Hungarian interests, including nomination of Hungarian prefects in counties where Hungarians are in majority. Borbely noted that several lawsuits had been launched by Romanian prefects over the use of Hungarian symbols lately.

Borbely said that conditions for a coalition include the granting of more minority rights, free use of symbols associated with local Hungarian communities and launching development projects to boost the infrastructure in Transylvania. The question of autonomy should also be addressed during the negotiations, Borbely added.

Victor Ponta is set to announce his new government next Monday.

Photo: www.rmdsz.ro