During the qualifying round for the 2020 European Football Championship the Romanian national team first played in Norway, Oslo on the 7th of June, followed by a match on the 10th on the Ta’Qali National Stadium in Malta. During both games Romanian fans were continuously shouting anti-Hungarian slogans, even on the TV coverage one could hear for several minutes the sadly familiar chant: “Out with the Hungarians from the country!”
Heightened anti-Hungarian atmosphere during the qualifying matches for the 2020 European Football Championship
Romanians vandalised the military cemetery in the Úz Valley
Close to a thousand civilians and public personalities from the Szeklerland had come together to form a human chain around the military cemetery in the Úz Valley yesterday afternoon in order to inhibit Romanians from unlawfully breaking into the common graveyard, where the bodies of Austrian, German and Hungarian soldiers rest. After Romanian groups had arrived by force in numbers to the scene, they started demanding the opening of the cemetery gate while shouting: “out with the Hungarians from the country!”, singing irredentist songs and yelling to the Hungarian groups present to be ashamed of themselves.
Setback in legislation regarding linguistic rights in Romania
Recent years, but especially the last two years have been marked by so far failed attempts to update linguistic rights for national minorities in Romania. One such initiative was blocked in Parliament in 2017, while another one, an attempt to adopt an Administrative Code, was initially adopted by Parliament in the summer of 2018, then contested by opposition parties, as well as the President, and it was eventually declared unconstitutional in its entirety by the Constitutional Court, based on procedural grounds.
The Szekler Council of Local Representatives is asking for the situation of the military cemetery in Valea Uzului/Úz-völgye to be settled
As we have reported in our last two newsletters, the local administration of the village of Dărmănești/Dormánfalva has appropriated a Hungarian military cemetery located in neighbouring Harghita county. The situation has worsened considerably after several Hungarians have been taken in for questioning by the police, while the local administration of Dărmănești/Dormánfalva that put up crosses and monuments in the cemetery illegally has still not been brought to account.
The situation regarding the military cemetery in Valea Uzului/Úz-völgye is escalating
As we have described in our previous newsletter, the local administration of the town of Dărmănești/Dormánfalva has recently taken ownership of a Hungarian military cemetery in neighbouring Harghita county, under dubious circumstances. The cemetery located in Valea Uzului/Úz-völgye (Valley of Uz) was the site of several battles during World War II, and many Hungarian and German soldiers are buried there. The cemetery has come to be almost like a place of pilgrimage, not only for Hungarians living in Transylvania, but for all Hungarians. Officials from Dărmănești/Dormánfalva have already put up numerous crosses made of concrete next to the wooden crosses put up on the graves, and they have also erected a monument in memory of the Romanian soldiers that fought in World War II.