Semjen Zsolt: If we managed to conclude collaboration with Serbs, then why can't we also do it with Romania?

Deputy Prime Minister of Hungary and leader of the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP), Semjén Zsolt, declared on Friday, at the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) Congress in Sangeorgiu de Mures, that Hungary has seven neighbors and that it managed to conclude a close collaboration with the other neighbors, but this way of collaboration has not yet been achieved with Romania, agerpres reports.

"I draw your attention to the role of UDMR in supporting Romanian-Hungarian relations, I tell my Romanian friends that our hand has been and continues to be extended to you. Hungary's interest is to have good Romanian-Hungarian relations. Hungary has seven neighbors, Hungary has a similar relationship with Ukraine, as does Romania from the perspective of the Romanian community. With the other neighbors, however, we managed to conclude a collaboration with our friends from Slovakia in V4 (the Visegrad Group), in Serbia, for example, the Milosevic regime somewhat left the Hungarians behind, but thanks to the Hungarian organization (...) we have reached a historic agreement. Then I am asking you, if we managed to conclude this collaboration with the Serbs, then why can't we do it with Romania as well? Our hand is outstretched and we count on UDMR's role in supporting Romanian-Hungarian relations. God bless the Hungarians in Transylvania, bless Transylvania and the UDMR," Semjen Zsolt said, according to the official translation.

The leader of KDNP, an allied party of FIDESZ, the party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, showed that it is important for everyone, for all Hungarians and for Brussels, that Hungarians in Transylvania have never asked for any new things that are not generally accepted in the European Union.

"If we accept existing rights in Europe, to which other European communities are entitled, then those rights should be ours too, because what is possible for some must be possible for us too," said Deputy Prime Minister Semjen Zsolt.

Semjen Zsolt showed that for two decades he has been at the helm of the Christian Democratic People's Party and that during this period he was not only in partnership, but in a friendly relationship with UDMR.

"From the beginning I have been pro-UDMR because we are pro-Hungarian. The key to understanding this situation is that if, God forbid!, the UDMR were shaken, then in Bucharest there will be no other Hungarian party, but there won't be anyone. In the end, they will have no choice but to join another Romanian party, and that is how a Hungarian party will end the whole course, that is why we are against everything that weakens the UDMR," stressed Semjen Zsolt.

He mentioned that since 2010, the Hungarian Government and UDMR have not reached compromises, as some journalists wrote, but there is a relationship of "unconditional trust from the perspective of Transylvania, from the perspective of Romania, and there have been no decisions in Budapest that have not been discussed with Mr Kelemen [UDMR leader]".

"We need to have dialogues with organizations beyond the borders of Hungary before making any decision and that is why I want to thank the UDMR, the activists, the mayors who helped us in the naturalization process. All those who wanted to acquire dual citizenship, have succeeded in doing so. At one point, there was a shameful referendum, because the majority knew how to vote, but the government at the time emotionally hurt the Hungarians abroad and the Hungarians in Transylvania. In 2010, we gained a two-thirds majority, and our first task was to pass a law on dual citizenship, so that all Hungarians can acquire Hungarian citizenship by right," said Semjén Zsolt.

The Deputy Prime Minister in Budapest also said that UDMR is responsible not only for the Hungarians in Transylvania, because what is happening in Transylvania is a point of reference for the other Hungarian communities as well.