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The Szekler Flag caused a diplomatic incident, over which the Ambassador of Hungary was summoned in Bucharest. The Szekler flag is the regional symbol of the Hungarian-speaking Szekler ethnic group living in the centre of Romania, in a region where Hungarians comprise the majority of the population. The Romanian state has been trying to remove the Szekler flag from all public spaces using all means at its disposal. This caused tension between Romania and Hungary once more.
The Ambassador of Hungary was summoned after the chairman of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the Hungarian Parliament, Zsolt Németh, member of The Hungarian Civic Alliance (FIDESZ), in one of his Facebook posts wrote that the Szekler flag would be displayed on all the Hungarian public institutions until the Romanian state allows its use throughout the territory of Romania.
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A speech by Botond Csoma, Leader of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ) Parliamentary Group caused nationalist hysteria at the commemoration of the National Holiday in Romania, on the 1st of December. It is important to know that in 1918 Transylvania, which was part of the Kingdom of Hungary, became part of Romania. Therefore, the 1st of December is a highly sensitive topic for Hungarians in Transylvania.
Botond Csoma, Member of Parliament, spoke, among other things, about the Hungarian community envisioning their future in Romania, and that UDMR/RMDSZ is a partner in all the ideas that improve the living standards of citizens regardless of their ethnicity.
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As it is known, many protests against anti-epidemic measures were organized in several cities in the country last week, which were coordinated by the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR). A crowd of nearly 400 people gathered in the center of Pitești on Monday afternoon to protest against the lockdown rules, the mandatory use of face masks and to demand freedom.
In the first part of the protest the crowd protested against the restrictions and shouted slogans such as „Freedom!” and „Down with the Government!”, however, in the second part the crowd started to chant xenophobic slogans. The crowd also shouted the well-known „Out with the Hungarians from the country!” chant, which is frequently used at football matches. It is inexplicable why the crowd blamed the Hungarians for the current epidemiological situation and took the opportunity to incite to hatred against the Hungarian minority.
Erika Benkő, director of the Mikó Imre Minority Rights Legal Services Assistance explained: „It is very worrying that such anti-Hungarian statements were made at the protests organized by a parliamentary party and that there is a search for scapegoats during the epidemic, which is given an ethnic tone due to the fact that anti-Hungarian rhetoric is often present in the discourse of people protesting against anti-epidemic measures.”
On Friday, unknown perpetrators vandalized the Monument of the Szekler Martyrs, painting it over with the colors of the Romanian flag. The use of red-yellow-blue paint is becoming more and more common in the case of defacing different Hungarian signs and reviling monuments. According to the head of the city, the perpetrators might be the same as those ones, who incited the population in Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely with regard to ethnicity, before the municipal elections.
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In Romania, as in Europe and other countries in the world, there is a vaccination campaign to beat Covid-19. Given the discrimination that can be observed in this field, namely that there is no information in Hungarian, it is not possible to register for the vaccine in Hungarian and there are no forms in Hungarian, which must be filled before getting vaccinated, the “Mikó Imre” Minority Rights Legal Services Assistance turned to the National Council for Combatting Discrimination. The object of the complaint is that citizens are informed about the vaccine only in Romanian and the difficult medical terminology is challenging even for those, who otherwise are native speakers of Romanian. It is more than clear that Romanian citizens belonging to the Hungarian minority are discriminated and the information available only in Romanian impairs the elderly people, who are the most in need of protection.
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