Despite his strong desire to “fight discrimination,” infamous blogger Dan Tanasă failed to get enough votes to secure a seat on the Romanian anti-discrimination council. Csaba Asztalos, however, was re-elected president of the institution, securing a mandate for a further five years.

As we previously reported, seven seats were up for grabs on the National Council for Combating Discrimination (CNCD), and 26 candidates were vying for them, including the openly nationalist Romanian activist Dan Tanasă, whom we don’t have to introduce.

The secret vote of Parliament resulted in the following (final) list of members of the anti-discrimination watchdog (nominating party in parentheses):

• Adrian Diaconu (PSD)
• Horia Grama (PSD)
• Csaba Asztalos(RMDSZ)
• Cristian Iura (PNL)
• Mariana Moț (PNL)
• Claudia Popa Sorina (PNL)
• Cătălina Olteanu (USR)

The members have also elected a president of the council: Csaba Asztalos received a mandate for another five years. He will be assisted in his duties by vice-president Adrian Diaconu, who will fulfill this position for two and a half years.

Asztalos has been on the council since 2002 and has served as its president for 15 years. As a new wave of anti-Hungarian manifestations have been gaining traction and other minorities are also experiencing discrimination, Asztalos says it is a big challenge to be president of the anti-discrimination council today.

(Source: Transylvanianow.com)

After a lawsuit that lasted nearly ten years, the Ploieşti Court of Appeals pronounced on Thursday its final decision in the border dispute between the Szekler city of Gyergyószentmiklós (Gheorgheni) and the municipality of Bicaz Chei. In a judgment that cannot be appealed, the court granted the territorial and administrative rights of the famously scenic Békás Gorge to the latter city.

Gyergyószentmiklós, the third biggest city of Hargita County in Transylvania’s Szeklerland, is bordered to the north and northeast by Neamţ County’s Bicaz Chei, part of the historical Romanian region of Moldova.

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Members of the Parliament will have to decide whether they will allow candidates such as the infamous Dan Tanasă to become a member of the National Council for Combating Discrimination (CNCD).

The Romanian discrimination watchdog has seven seats up for grabs, and 26 candidates are vying for them. The palette of candidates is very colourful, including a former cop who was charged with selling stolen cars (and who is against gender theory, by the way), a homophobe Orthodox councilor, and the like.

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The Realitatea Plus TV channel was fined for RON 20,000 (EUR 4,100) by the National Audiovisual Council of Romania, based on a complaint from – among others – the Mikó Imre Association for the Protection of Minority Rights. The fine was imposed for creating an anti-Hungarian atmosphere on two episodes of Game of Power, which aired on May 18 and 25, the association informed.

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The mayor of Székelyudvarhely/Odorheiu Secuiesc will have to remove Hungarian flags from his office and the council chamber inside the Mayor’s Office building. The decision was made by the Bucharest Tribunal in a case initiated by the Civic Association for Dignity in Europe (ADEC), led by Romanian blogger Dan Tanasă.

The news of the ruling was communicated to the town clerk this Thursday. Dan Tanasă is well known for his consistent attacks against the Hungarian minority living in Romania. He was one of the main speakers at the  Úz Valley cemetery incident last June when a Romanian–Hungarian conflict similar to the Black Spring of 1990 was avoided only by a hair’s breadth.

Székelyudvarhely has reached agreements with many Hungarian settlements to be a sister city. “Since the town is connected with multiple sister cities, we have decided to exhibit every symbolic gift received from them in spaces that aren’t public. According to Romanian law, the number of spaces where you can exhibit other countries’ flags is limited; however, the city hall’s two chambers cannot be classified as public spaces,” the town clerk told Székelyhon in an interview. The allegations by the association led by Tanasă are intolerable and profoundly offensive and disgraceful, he commented.

The official justification for the ruling is on its way to the city, so the management of Székelyudvarhely will decide whether to appeal only after reading it. “We believe that it is unacceptable and that it isn’t a diplomatic gesture by city leadership to remove the gifts we’ve received. It would show disrespect to the communities we have international agreements with,” the clerk added.

Mayor Árpád Gálfi naturally will comply with final rulings, but in this case, the court’s decision is not yet final, Attila Ember, the mayor’s spokesman, said.

(Source: Transylvanianow.com)