"language of horses" in a 2014 election program on public television. called the Hungarian - reported on Monday the Internet newspaper JustNews.ro.
According to the fact-finding portal dealing with the Romanian justice system, the almost eight-year-old case reached the Romanian Supreme Court, which in its order published last week classified it as unfounded and rejected the CNCD's appeal.
In this way, the decision of the Cluj District Court in May 2020, which ruled in favor of Funar, became legally binding.
According to the district court's reasoning at the time, the former mayor had no intention of insulting the representatives of the Romanian Hungarian Democratic Union (RMDSZ), creating a hostile and intimidating atmosphere on linguistic or ethnic grounds, but expressed his political views in the "exaggerated and provocative manner usual in debate shows", " in a bad light pointing out his opponents".
It is an animal that is only associated with positive praise in the public mind - the reasoning of the Romanian court.
According to the Cluj District Court, Funar did not state that " the Hungarian language is the language of horses", and he also considered it incomprehensible: in what ethnic, historical or other context would the " the language of horses" offend the dignity of a representative of the RMDSZ.
"Associating another minority with a certain bird (crow) is obviously offensive, but in this case it is an animal that is only associated with positive praise in the public mind, so the use of the term "horse language" cannot be assumed to incite ethnic intolerance" - JustNews quoted the court's justification of the basic decision.
Gheorghe Funart, who ran as an independent candidate in the 2014 Romanian presidential election, was complained to the anti-discrimination authority by RMDSZ senator Tánczos Barna. The former mayor of Cluj asked the host to order the RMDSZ official after Tánczos Barna greeted the viewers in both Romanian and Hungarian.
"Inform the interlocutor sitting on my right that we live in Romania (...) and do not use a single word from the language of horses, because Romanian is the official language of Romania.
You can speak Hungarian in Budapest, speak Romanian here. If I become the president of Romania, I can assure you that no one will speak Hungarian. Not even on Romanian television," declared Gheorghe Funar live .
The CNCD assessed that his statement created a "hostile and intimidating atmosphere based on ethnicity and language" , and therefore fined Funar for discrimination. According to the violation decision, Funar should have paid the 2,000 lei fine at the tax office of Cluj County, and the CNCD decision condemning him should have been published in a national daily newspaper. Instead, the decision of the district court, which has now become final, obliged CNCD to reimburse Funar's legal costs of 300 lei.
Source: Mandarin
Image: MTI
