The Maros County Court ordered the removal of the Makfalvi flag in its basic judgment.

The Maros County Court ordered the removal of the Székely flag erected in Makfalva, Székelyföld, in its Monday basic judgment, upholding the claim of Maros County Prefect Cibrian Dobre, said Előd Kincses, a lawyer from Marosvásárhely.

According to the basic judgment also published on the portal of the Romanian courts, the judges upheld the claim submitted by the regional representative of the Romanian government, in which he requested:

oblige the mayor of the Maros county municipality, Imré Vass, to remove the Székely flag erected in the Makfalva park.

The basic judgment states: obliges the foreman to remove "the blue and gold flag of the Székely National Council, known as the Székely flag" from the park. The decision of the primary court can be appealed within 15 days.

In mid-October, the prefect of Maros county sued the mayor of Makfalva, Imré Vass, for displaying the Székely flag in the public square.

In his lawsuit, Ciprian Dobre asked the judges to oblige the mayor of the village to remove the blue-gold flag considered the flag of the "so-called Székelyland". (The term "so-called Székelyland" - with a small initial letter - is used by Romanian politicians to question and deny the existence of the block Hungarian region.)

He recalled: on September 13, in a transcript, he asked the mayor to remove the symbol placed next to the statue of Baron Miklós Wesselényi in the park of the settlement, but Imre Vass replied: displaying the Székely flag is not against the law.

In his lawsuit, Dobre cited the Romanian National Flag Act, which stipulates that the official flags of other states can only be flown together with the Romanian national flag during official visits and other international events. He emphasized that the display of any other flag is prohibited, as it has no legal basis.

Dobre stated in the lawsuit: only the officially accepted symbols can be used, such as the flag and coat of arms of Romania and the coat of arms of the given administrative unit. He also wrote that the Székely flag, the Székely anthem and the SIC region code referring to Székelyföld are related to the autonomy aspirations of the people living in the region, to "territorial separatism on an ethnic basis", which he says is unconstitutional.

Imre Vass, who won a new mandate as an independent in June, requested the rejection of the claim in his response letter, pointing out that its display was not an administrative act, and that preventing the use of national symbols violates the Romanian constitution and the framework agreement on the protection of national minorities.

Regarding the prefectural transcript sent in September regarding the Makfalva flag, Balázs Izsák, the president of the Székely National Council, announced that the organization is ready to provide all moral and political assistance to the mayor of Makfalva.

In the most recent Romanian census, 2,200 of the approximately 3,000 residents of the village of Makfalva in Maros county declared themselves Hungarian.

MTI

Cover image: Hungarian and Székely flags at the Our Lady's Chapel in Kontumác in Gyimesbükk in Székelyföld
Source: MTI/Balázs Mohai