As our organisation has repeatedly signalled, there is an ongoing fight on the part of Romanian authorities against putting up bilingual (Romanian and Hungarian) street signs in Tîrgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely, one of the major Transylvanian cities, with a Hungarian population of 43%.
The latest development in this matter concerns a first degree ruling by the Mureș Administrative Court, which invalidated two local council resolutions from 2017, both of which stipulated that street names should be put up in Hungarian as well. These resolutions were challenged in court by Lucian Goga, the Mureș county prefect, who has been known in recent years to relentlessly attack bilingual signs, as well as taking a harsh stance against Hungarian symbols across the county.
It is regrettable that the courts back local authorities in their vicious pursuit to curb the basic rights of the Hungarian community. It is also disappointing that, as we have reported in our previous newsletter, the new administrative code, which would allow, among other things, for bilingual street signs to be put up in the local administrative units where a minority constitutes at least 20% of the population, has still not been promulgated by President Klaus Iohannis, and is under attack by nationalistic groups. We strongly believe that, given the animosity of certain Romanian local authorities towards the issue of linguistic rights for the Hungarian minority, the only feasible long-term solution would be a legislative guarantee, such as the currently disputed administrative code, which would require the use of bilingual street signs, as well as ensuring other basic rights for the Hungarian community in Romania.