Marcel Ciolacu asked the speaker to quickly reject the drafts on the day they were submitted.

The parliamentary submission of the autonomy drafts is "one of the toughest declarations of loyalty towards the Romanian state" , which indicates that the Hungarian community wants to realize its self-determination within the framework of the Romanian state

- said Zoltán Zakariás , the president of the Transylvanian Hungarian Association (EMSZ), to the Hungarian public media on Thursday in connection with the fact that on Wednesday, his representatives submitted three autonomy drafts to the Bucharest House of Representatives.

He pointed out: this is not the first time that these drafts have been brought to the table of the Romanian parliament, each time they have met with rigid rejection, so he does not have much hope of their acceptance this time either, but according to him

the goal is to finally start a meaningful dialogue between Romanians and Hungarians about the territorial autonomy of Székelyföld, and about the cultural self-determination of the Hungarian community in Transylvania as a whole.

He pointed out: the representation of the Transylvanian Hungarians has stated for thirty years that the key to the survival of the Hungarian national community is self-determination, i.e. the ability to "decide your own affairs". He added: there are many examples of different forms of autonomy in Europe, and in the case of Transylvanian Hungarians, different life situations require different forms of autonomy: where Hungarians live in a minority or in a mixed environment, cultural autonomy is needed, in Székelyföld, where Hungarians live in blocks, territorial autonomy is called for , to which administrative powers are also added, primarily that

the Hungarian language in Székelyföld should have the same rank as the official language of the state.

In response to the suggestion that Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu asked the speaker to quickly reject the drafts on the day they were submitted, abstained from the dialogue on autonomy, calling the related drafts "toxic initiatives", Zoltán Zakariás said: it is unfortunate that the Romanian political leaders they steer themselves into a position of rejection, even though a substantive discussion is clearly needed.

"We want to achieve what we want in a democratic, peaceful way. So the fact that we are trying to achieve these demands through the parliament shows that we are ready for dialogue," the EMSZ president pointed out.

When asked whether, in the current war situation, on the threshold of an election year, he is not afraid that the parliamentary debate provoked on the autonomy drafts will create an anti-Hungarian public mood in Romania, the president of the EMSZ said:

he does not know how the Romanian society could become more radicalized than it is now, after the extremist parties have already radicalized the public discourse and society in a completely "unrealistic way", and this has filtered into the parliament as well.

He noted: in every period of the last 30 years, it was possible to present an argument according to which it was "not timely" to come forward with the demand for autonomy at the given moment, and even now, with malice, the issue of autonomy can be "falsely" connected to the war taking place next door. However, according to him, the timing of the submission of the drafts is completely logical, as the parliament elected in 2020 will begin its last year of its mandate next year, and

the start of the autonomy dialogue cannot be postponed any longer.

He recalled: both after the 2020 elections and at the end of 2021, the program of the government coalition formed with the participation of the RMDSZ included the adoption of the draft law on minorities, which would have included a chapter on cultural autonomy.

"Three years have passed, and the draft law on minorities has not even appeared, it has not been formulated, and it has not even been officially inaugurated. From then on, these draft laws had to be collected and submitted in order to start the dialogue. So I'm convinced that sooner or later there will be a sane politician with whom we can start a meaningful debate," said the president of the EMSZ.

MTI

Cover image: Illustration / Photo: MTI/Nándor Veres