We live here, this is how we live, the RMDSZ is launching an information campaign with the slogan two months before the start of the 2022 Romanian census, in order to encourage as many Hungarians in Romania to take part in the census and boldly declare their ethnic, religious affiliation, and mother tongue.
At a press conference held on Friday in Cluj-Napoca, RMDSZ president Kelemen Hunor said that the census, which officially begins on March 14, has both pragmatic and symbolic stakes. The first one affects government work, since government subsidies are distributed to counties and settlements based on these numbers. And the symbolic stake is to show "how many Hungarians live in Romania, that we are a viable community, that we can organize ourselves," he said.
Kelemen Hunor reminded that the RMDSZ also got involved in the legislative process related to the census, so we managed to achieve that for the first time in the last 30 years we can use our mother tongue during the digital self-filling, and the enumerator is also Hungarian during the personal inquiry. "We would like an effective and fair census, if the Hungarian people were counted correctly and successfully," Kelemen Hunor formulated the goal , encouraging everyone to take part in the otherwise mandatory census and bravely undertake the ethnic, linguistic, religious identity. He emphasized that participation is a community and national matter, a task for society as a whole, therefore churches and civil organizations, Hungarian municipalities are also involved in the work, and they expect as many volunteers as possible to help with the self-filling process. According to the president of the RMDSZ, the latter is the surest way to ensure that the answers to the most important questions are in place. He emphasized that the data provided now form the basis for securing language rights in the next ten years.
In response to Krónika's question, the president of the RMDSZ said that there are no subcategories for nationality in this year's census, and regional identities are also considered Hungarian. "I am a person from Székely, my mother is from Székely, my father is from Székely, but I declare myself Hungarian in the census!" he declared. He added that it is a nice thing to nurture regional identity, but in his opinion this should not be demonstrated in the census. As mentioned, only the Hungarian category is included in this year's census, in contrast to the 2011 census, when 1,665 "Székely" and 1,133 "Ungur" were registered by the enumerators.
more about the information on the Krónika online portal.
Photos: Mónika Jakab
