UDMR leader says lack of trust and respect pervades majority's relationship with Hungarian minority

Chairman of the Hungarian Democratic Union (UDMR) Kelemen Hunor said on Tuesday evening that "a lack of confidence, a lack of respect" can be sensed in the relationship of the majority with Romania's Hungarian ethnic minority, and that this issue is also visible in daily life.

"Comparing the point we are now at to where we stood in December 1989, let's say it's been a good track, yet with far less good results than we would have wanted. The 1.3 million-strong community stayed here, they want to build a better country, but at the same time preserve a well-defined linguistic and cultural identity and everything that has to do with authentic identity. And they permanently have the feeling that the Romanian majority - we are talking about an asymmetrical relationship, this cannot be otherwise - is trying to assimilate them, to find legal or less legal pretexts to take back some of their acquired rights," said Kelemen Hunor at the Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR), attending the launch of the book "100 Years, One Hundred Representative Hungarian Personalities from Romania".

He went on to say that this tendency has become visible particularly after 2012 - 2013 and that instead of disappearing, the prejudices are getting stronger. "It's the prejudices inside the Hungarian community. There are prejudices on both sides, of the Romanian majority, and on our side too. And we are trying to understand why this sentiment, why this concern, why cannot be something built permanently, why do we have to tear down what has been built?," said Kelemen Hunor.

He remarked that the perception of the Romanian majority is that the problems of the Hungarian community have been solved "in an exemplary, never seen before manner."

The UDMR leader said that "what the Hungarian community wants is extremely simple, namely an institutional resolution to preserve its identity, an institutional guarantee that it will keep its culture and language, with everything related to ethnic identity, and nothing else."

He also said that the "Concordia" military exercise currently taking place in the counties of Harghita and Covasna gives rise to interpretations.

"It' s not that the Army is conducting an exercise, the Army has the right to carry out military exercises anywhere in Romania. But when the argument for the necessity of this exercise is that things are very similar to South Ossetia and Donbas, then ... (...) What are we talking about? Is this the offer of the Romanian state? Is this the offer of the majority for the Harghita and Covasna community? (..) We too are preoccupied to restore respect and trust, because willy-nilly we have been living together for 100 years," concluded Kelemen Hunor.

The book "100 Years, One Hundred Representative Hungarian Personalities from Romania", put out by the publishing house of the School Foundation, was launched on Tuesday evening in the Great Hall of the Romanian Cultural Institute.

Also attending the event hosted by ICR vice-president Krizbai Bela Dan were writer Bela Marko - former UDMR Chairman, researcher Cosmin Popa from the Romanian Academy, and editor Zoltan-Csaba Novak; the meeting was moderated by journalist Ovidiu Nahoi, RFI Romania editor-in-chief.

According to ICR, the volume, structured in nine chapters, presents one hundred personalities of Hungarian ethnicity from literature, science, fine arts, public, political and religious life, medical sciences, culture and sport, including architect Kos Karoly, writer Tamasi Aron, plastic artists Balazs Imre and Mattis-Teutsch Janos, writer and politician Domokos Gaza, lawyer Miko Imre, Roman-Catholic bishop Marton Aron, athlete Balázs Jolan (Iolanda Balas) or violinist Ruha Istvan.

The book was also published in Hungarian as part of the program "1,000 Years in Transylvania, 100 Years in Romania", launched last year in the context of the celebration of the Greater Union Centennial.