This year’s parliamentary elections came as a big surprise after the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), an ultranationalist, extremist and anti-Hungarian party received 9.08% of the votes. The victory of AUR is staggering taking into account the fact that, inter alia, in the local elections held in September, 2020, they obtained only around 1% of the citizens’ votes. Subsequently, many wondered what lies behind AUR and what impact it would have on the Romanian politics.
According to George Simon, co-president of the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) has no place in Parliament
For the first time in the last 12 years, an ultra-nationalist party has entered the Romanian Parliament with a very strong support. This is incredibly worrying, as the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) is totally against the minorities and promotes legionary ideas.
Anti-Hungarian statements once again from Romanian President Klaus Iohannis
During a press briefing on July 30th, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis spoke about the grave situation the country finds itself in due to the Coronavirus pandemic, and called for strict measures and sanctions, while also accusing the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), together with the main opposition party (PSD), for supposedly provoking the present health crisis.
The chant ”Out with Hungarians from the country!” does not qualify as incitement to hatred and discrimination, according to Romanian public prosecutor
As our organisation informed on several occasions throughout the course of last year, on June 6th 2019, the international war cemetery in Valea Uzului/Úz-völgye in Harghita county became the scene of violent tensions between several nationalist Romanian organisations, the gendarmerie and members of the Hungarian community, the latter of whom formed a human chain around the cemetery in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent its illegal occupation and the desecration of its graves. The inebriated Romanian crowd became completely unmanageable, the authorities lost control over the situation. The increasingly aggressive crowd broke the gates of the cemetery, destroyed the wooden crosses placed on the graves and started hitting the Hungarians present with wood broken from the fence and flagpoles, causing great material and moral injury.
Prosecutor-General’s Office: statements made on April 29th by President Iohannis constitute hate speech
As we have reported, anti-Hungarian statements made by Romanian President Klaus Werner Iohannis on April 29th shocked the approximately 1.2 million Hungarian community living in the country. The President showed his most primitive, aggressive and cynical side, unprecedented in Romania since the regime change, and for which the National Council for Combatting Discrimination fined him with 5000 RON (appr. 1000 euros), following complaints from several organizations, including the Mikó Imre Minority Rights Legal Services Assistance.