Mass lay-offs of ethnic Hungarian officials in Romania runs contrary to European Union law and also breaks the law in Romania, head of the Hungarian parliament’s foreign affairs committee said on Tuesday.
Zsolt Nemeth (opposition Fidesz) said his party was opposed to the “political and ethnic clean-up” under way in Romania.
Fidesz, he said, is worried that the tense situation in Hungarian-Romanian relations of the 1990s may return, Nemeth said after hearing a report by ethnic Hungarian MEP from Romania Laszlo Tokes.
Deputy head of the parliamentary committee Jozsef Kozma (governing Socialists) said minority rights must not be allowed to suffer as a result of ethnic Hungarians being ousted from the Romanian government, he added.
Deputy Foreign Minister Vilmos Szabo told the committee that the Hungarian ministry was at work to find a solution to the problem of ethnic Hungarian officials being laid off in Romania. Talks are under way and a solution is expected within the next few weeks, he added. The Hungarian and the Romanian ministers consult with each other monthly under the arrangements of the European Union and a meeting of deputy ministers will be held in a month, Szabo said. A meeting of the prime ministers and a joint government session are currently being organised, he added.
History repeating itself, I do hope to see the EU stand by European Union law. I have a sneaky suspicion that they are cowards and will turn the other way.
I think this article is a bit biased. The idea that “ethnic Hungarians” were “ousted from the Romanian government” is misleading. It implies that ethnic Hungarian members of the government were sacked on the basis of their ethnicity. Instead, what happened is that the UDMR/RDMSz party, which represents ethnic-Hungarians, is no longer part of the governing coalition after the 2008 elections.
It is normal in a democracy that governing parties and coalitions change periodically. The fact that RDMSz is no longer part of the governing coalition naturally means that public servants and bureaucrats from this party will be replaced by officials from other parties. The criterion here is political/party-related rather than etnic.
Just for the record: I’m Romanian and I strongly support Hungarian minority rights, including regional autonomy for Szeklers. I also support the RDMSz, including its participation in government coalitions. Nevertheless, like any other party, RDMSz does not have a right to be part of every single governing coalition in Romania.
As Horia, I also believe the article is biased, as is the whole storm in a glass of water that Fidesz is generating in Romania. There is no ethnic cleansing of any kind going on, it’s simply that those no longer in power (RMDSZ) are emptying their seats for the new comers (which by the way, at some point, offered the RMDSZ the chance to make a coalition together). Now, that is also true that some apparently non-political jobs are in fact politically allocated as rewards for good behavior (heads of hospitals, cultural centers, pencil pushers in toen halls, universities, etc), and thus the political cycle brings some rotation on these musical chairs. And I guess these are some of the jobs that the FIDESZ guys are referring to in their populist-rightist discourse. But it is still a manipulating discourse…
I am Romanian and Romanian ethnic as well. Just like yourself I love my contry and the people I belong too and therefore I hope that you will understand my support for the Romanian version of the story.
As you well know history between our nations has many dark perioods. Putting history a side for a moment I would like to draw your attention on the fact that the current new wave of ethnic tension which I see not only in Romania but also in Hungary between our people has a very negative effect on the Hungarian speaking minorities which live in Romania. First because Romanians from the entire country recognize NOW that there is a problem with the Hungarian speaking minorities in Romania and second because it ampflifies the very deep mistrust in the face of the Romanian majority. As a result every small effort to improve the situation in Harghita& Covasna gets automaticaly the rejection from the majority and as a result from the leading parties in Romania.
The fact remains that UDMR lost their seats in the Romanian goverment and as a result they cannot have members in the governmental agencies. No sign of ethnic cleansing.
I hope that the membership in EU gives the new generations in both our countries a chance to prosper and leave toghether in peace. But this will not be possible unless Hungarian speaking minorities accept that they live in Romania and that here we all have a duty to bring our contribution to make things better for all and not just for some of us.