According to the final judgment of the Brașov Plate Court on Monday, the bilingual place name plates in the village of Nagypatak (Valea Mare) in Kovászna county must be removed, the Romanian news agency Agerpres reported on Tuesday. The reason is that the proportion of Hungarian residents does not reach the 20 percent specified in the law, so they are not delayed. Romanian organizations called the decision an important victory for legality and national unity.
The judgment of the Board Court in Brasov obliges the Kovászna county government to remove the Romanian and Hungarian language name boards installed at the entrances of the settlement. It also stipulates that only place name signs with inscriptions in the state language, i.e. Romanian, be placed.
In August 2022, the county organization of Nemzet Útja Egyesület filed a complaint with the Székelyföld county prefecture about the bilingual place name signs displayed in Nagypatak, which is mostly inhabited by Romanians. According to their reasoning
the signs violate the law, as the proportion of Hungarians in the village does not reach the 20 percent language usage threshold required by the Public Administration Act.
According to Agerpres, with its current decision, the district court partially approved the prefecture's defense, in which it objected to the judgment of the Kovászna County Court of First Instance.
The verdict handed down on Monday was also welcomed by the Civil Forum of Romanians in Kovászna, Hargita and Maros Counties, and called it an important victory for legality and national unity.
On their Facebook page, they wrote that Romanian mayors and civil organizations objected to the bilingual signs displayed in the part of Kovászna county inhabited mostly by Romanians.
According to the Romanian civil society organization, it is unacceptable that the territory of the county is designated based on "ethnic criteria", therefore the civil forum "continues to fight" for the observance of the law and for Romanian national unity, they wrote.
In Nagypatak, which has a population of 1,065, 21 people declared themselves Hungarian in the last Romanian census.
MTI
Photo: Googlemaps screenshot
