Interrupting the parliamentary vacation, the Romanian House of Representatives rejected the three draft laws providing for the autonomy of Székelyföld in an emergency procedure, as it could be done in an envelope.
Of course, the loudest anti-Hungarian voices were heard from the benches of the representatives of the extreme nationalist AUR during the voting - among other things they chanted that "Székelyföld does not exist" - but the Romanian parties, which claim to be European and progressive, also unanimously described the drafts as dangerous, unconstitutional, and toxic. which must be rejected as soon as possible, writes foter.ro.
The three drafts were submitted to the legislature by Zoltán Zakariás and József Kulcsár-Terza, who won a parliamentary mandate on the lists of the RMDSZ, among them
one is the draft framework law regulating the cultural autonomy of national communities, the second is the cultural autonomy statute of the Hungarian national community, and the third is the autonomy statute of Székelyföld.
Due to the parliamentary break, some of the representatives voted remotely, online, which is how the funny situation - which was later aired by - could have arisen, that PNL spokesman Ionuț Stroe accidentally voted for one of the drafts. He later explained his mistake with a system error.
The initiators emphasized that
they do not ask for anything in the drafts that does not exist in other democratic states of Europe.
József Kulcsár-Terza stated that the inhabitants of Székelyföld "want freedom within the borders of Romania" through territorial self-determination. Among other European examples of autonomy, he mentioned French President Emmanuel Macron's promise of Corsican autonomy. He called for a dialogue, reminding that the Romanian state promised to ensure the rights of national minorities in the Gyulafehérvár Declaration of 1918 announcing the accession of Transylvania to Romania, reports MTI.
Zoltán Zakariás also emphasized the importance of dialogue and recommended the Vojvodina example of the cultural autonomy of the Hungarian national community to the attention of the representatives. He emphasized: the drafts are "declarations of loyalty" of national minorities towards the Romanian state.
Alfred Simonis, the Acting Speaker of the House of Representatives, stated in response to the objections of the representatives of the Association for the Unification of Romanians (AUR), which is considered extreme by the other Romanian parties - that the drafts were discussed with an emergency procedure during the festive period:
such "toxic" drafts cannot be the subject of debate,
you just have to reject them. The politician of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) announced:
initiates a consultation so that similar drafts cannot be filed in the Romanian parliament.
At a meeting that was also free of anti-Hungarian statements, some Transylvanian Romanian representatives emphasized the peaceful coexistence of Romanian ethnicities, while several members of the parliament reminded of the first article of the Romanian constitution, according to which Romania is a sovereign, independent, unified and indivisible nation-state, and therefore the drafts are unconstitutional. During the meeting, the AUR representatives held molinos with the inscription "Transylvanian ancient land" in their hands.
the Roma minority, Catalin Manea announced that he will vote against the draft framework law regulating the cultural autonomy of national communities, as
Romanian Roma want to develop within the framework of Romanian society.
Independent representative Tudor Vlad-Benga said: he is abstaining, because
according to him, the Romanian state did not fulfill the promises made to the national minorities in the Gyulafehérvár Declaration.
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu also welcomed the decision of the House of Representatives on Thursday. "Romania's sovereignty and territorial integrity are non-negotiable," News.ro quoted the prime minister as saying. Ciolacu called the autonomy drafts "toxic" and "revisionist", whose protracted debate would have favored extremist politicians.
The autonomy statute providing territorial autonomy for Székelyföld, which according to the previous announcement of the SZNT
it was presented to the Romanian legislature for the fifth time, the Romanian majority rejected it each time.
The three draft laws are then debated by the Senate as the deciding house.
Photo: MTI - Zsolt Czeglédi
