The parliamentary group leader of the RMDSZ is being attacked in Romania because of his views on the multi-ethnic Transylvania: Social Democrat speaker Marcel Ciolacu described Csoma Botond's parliamentary speech as a provocation and predicted political consequences if the president of the RMDSZ does not call on the leader of the parliamentary group to apologize.

On Friday, the media in Bucharest devoted a lot of space to Ciolacu's indignity, which was broadcast on Romania TV the previous evening.

According to the leader of the largest governing party, Romania is the most tolerant nation in the world, and the RMDSZ, as a member of the governing coalition, cannot complain about anti-Hungarianism, especially on "an occasion like this".

The objectionable speech was delivered during the ceremonial session of the bicameral parliament on Monday, which was dedicated to Romania's national holiday, the 104th anniversary of the Romanian National Assembly in Gyulafehérvár in 1918, which unilaterally proclaimed the union of the Kingdom of Romania and Transylvania. On such occasions, according to customary law, each faction expresses its position on the significance of the historical event that is commemorated at the ceremonial meeting in a time proportional to the number of members.

Csoma Botond spoke out against the national exclusivity dominating Romanian society, reducing the Romanian-Hungarian relationship to an eternal confrontation, and referring to the German-French reconciliation, he opined:

it should be possible for different national communities to relate to certain historical events in a different way from the majority, without causing outrage or subjecting them to a step-by-step loyalty test.

"At the time, the political and religious leaders of Transylvanian Romanians knew very well that Transylvania was not only Romanian, but also Hungarian, Saxon and Jewish: this is clearly reflected in the text of the Gyulafehérvár Declaration"

- argued the chief speaker of the RMDSZ, referring to the point of the historical document adopted by the Transylvanian Romanians in 1918 by public outcry, which promised "complete national freedom" - education, public administration and judiciary in the mother tongue, as well as proportional legislative and governmental representation - to all the peoples living together.

After this statement by the leader of the RMDSZ, Diana Sosoaca, a senator elected in the colors of the Association for the Union of Romanians (AUR), but who now politicizes as an independent, started to speak out during the ceremonial session of the parliament on Monday, and party leader George Simion walked out with the entire faction of the AUR on Monday during Csoma Botond's speech. However, Ciolacu, who chaired the meeting, asked the speaker of the RMDSZ to continue his speech, despite the noise.

In an interview with Romania TV, however, Ciolacu explained that he also considers Csoma Botond's statement unacceptable, stating that

"Transylvania is Romanian land, where Hungarians, Jews and other nationalities live together (with Romanians)".

The social democratic party chairman believed that Kelemen Hunor, the president of the RMDSZ, should call on Csoma Botondo to apologize.

Szatmár county representatives Adrian Cozma from the center-right National Liberal Party (PNL), another party of the grand coalition, joined in the insult, who on Friday assessed it as follows:

the RMDSZ has nothing to look for in the government, after its leaders did not formulate "any message" on the occasion of Romania's national holiday, despite the fact that Romanian politicians regularly greet Hungarians on March 15.

"How can you represent a country you despise?"

- the Szatmár county representative asked the rhetorical question.

The Romanian news televisions, which devoted a lot of space to the behavior of RMDSZ officials, also mentioned that RMDSZ president Kelemen Hunor, who holds the position of deputy prime minister in the Bucharest government, did not participate in the central ceremony on December 1st, the military parade organized at the Bucharest Arc de Triomphe.

MTI

Photo: Csoma Botond/Facebook