Will Szeklerland gain autonomy soon?

In Romania, citizens may initiate the parliamentary discussion of a draft, if it is supported by at least one hundred people. Signatures may be collected if the draft is legally sound according to the legislative committee, and if it becomes published in the Romanian Official Gazette, MTI told.

These conditions have been already met, and the committee of initiators aims to present to the Romanian Parliament the draft on the Autonomy of Székely Land – also called as Szeklerland – as citizen’s initiative.

The next step is to collect signatures,

said Zsolt Árus, one of the initiators, to MTI. He added that in the following week they would start to collect signatures in Gyergyószék, but the organization of a nationwide signature-collection shall remain the task of the Szekler National Council. He had explained before that presenting the draft on the autonomy by the parliamentary representatives of the Transylvanian Hungarians would be a more rational solution. Citizens’ initiative shall be an alternative solution only, he told to MTI, because it is extremely difficult to meet its requirements.

These requirements include collecting at least five thousand signatures from at least eight counties each. This means that the support of counties where Hungarians live only in diaspora is also needed.

Two drafts had been presented before on the Autonomy of Székely Land – in 2004, and later in 2012. Both had been refused by the Romanian Parliament.

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Source: MTI