The competent Romanian authorities missed the inscription in Romanian, but the court has now annulled the previous punishment.
The municipality of Nagykárol won a lawsuit in court, invalidating the protocol on the basis of which the Szatmár County Cultural Administration imposed a fine of 10,000 lei for erecting a full-length seated statue of Ferenc Kölcsey, Jenő Kovács, the city's RMDSZ mayor, announced on Monday on his Facebook page.
The monument was inaugurated on April 12 last year, in the presence of Katalin Novák, the former President of Hungary.
The regional authority, on the other hand, punished the municipality because the statue - which is located in front of the mayor's office - only has a Hungarian inscription, not a Romanian one. Next to the poet's name, the third line of the National Anthem ("Stretch out a protective arm") was displayed, together with a piece of music from Ferenc Erkel's music.
At the same time, the authority was also involved in the plinth, according to the minutes of April 11, their problem was that the statue is on a rock (rocă) rather than a stone (piatră) plinth.
Jenő Kovács already announced that they would go to court, but also stated that the "statue will remain".
As the current court ruling indicates, they were successful in the litigation.
"Soon, we will arrange for the verse on the sculpture composition, which comes from the Hungarian national anthem, to be translated into Romanian as well, to prove that we are not against anyone, we have no problems with anyone. According to this, the concerns of the Szatmár County Cultural Directorate prove to be groundless," said the chairman in his Facebook post.
The mayor said on Monday that although this court verdict is not yet final, and he does not consider it impossible that the cultural directorate will appeal, he sees no chance that they will lose.
He pointed out that at the request of the board, the trial of the case was moved to Nagyvárad, but, as he said, they won there as well. As he explained, in the meantime, the national authority that approves public monuments also declared that the pedestal is also in order.
In her Facebook post, Jenő Kovács recalled the events that took place at the unveiling ceremony of the statue, in the presence of Katalin Novák, the former first lady of the Republic of Hungary, indicating that extremists from other cities tried to disrupt the inauguration ceremony.
"I would like to say that we must not forget where the blind nationalism that was imported to us from different parts of the country leads. We witnessed a truly absurd, grotesque performance. Nagykároly must continue to preserve its multicultural and multi-ethnic character. This is the city where Romanians, Hungarians, Swabians, Roma and people of other nationalities live together in peace," he stated.
Cover image: Statue of Kölcsey in Nagykároly
Source: Nagykárolyi Egyházmegye
