Hungary Backs ‘Fight For Autonomy’ In Romania’s Heartland (Worthy News In-depth)
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News reporting from Budapest, Hungary
(Worthy News) – Hungary’s nationalist government backs the “fight for autonomy” for a region in Central Romania, a move that adds to tensions between the two neighbors.
State Secretary Árpád János Potápi said Sunday that Székely Land (also known as Szeklerland) and its mainly ethnic Hungarian population deserve self-determination.
“If the Székely people and their leaders commit themselves in full to a fight for autonomy, they can count on the Hungarian government’s support,” he stressed.
Potápi spoke after a Catholic mass in the region’s town of Siculeni, marking the end of the annual ‘Day of Székely Autonomy.’
He stressed that unlike Hungary’s Revolution against Soviet domination in 1956, “the fight for freedom today has to be waged with petitions, rather than weapons.”
EUROPEAN PETITION
Hungary’s controversial Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has made support for ethnic Hungarians abroad and handing out passports to them a cornerstone in his foreign policies.
On Sunday, the state secretary urged Catholic worshipers to gather more people to sign a European petition on autonomy launched by the Székely National Council, an advocacy group representing residents.
Its ‘European Citizens’ Initiative for the Equality of the Regions and Sustainability of the Regional Cultures’ aims to force the European Union to allow Székely Land’s autonomy.
The petition wants to pressure the European Commission, the EU’s executive, to support autonomy for EU regions “where the national, ethnic, and cultural characteristics are different from those of the surrounding regions.”
Organizers claim it attracted over one million signatures before the original deadline of May 7. But the campaign failed to collect the required minimum number of signatures from seven European Union member states.
“With the deadline for collecting signatures extended until November 7, the goal is to gather the required level of support in countries besides Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia, “the state secretary said.
WARRIOR TRIBE
Székely Land, named for a warrior tribe that dates to the Middle Ages and covering three counties, is part of Romania’s Transylvania region, which once belonged to Hungary.
The fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I meant that millions of Hungarians became citizens of what is now Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Serbia.
As an ally of Nazi-Germany, Hungary briefly regained control over Székely land and other areas before losing them again at the end of the Second World War.
Potápi has come under criticism for admiring Hungary’s pro-Nazi Governor Miklós Horthy, whose picture he had in his office. And his comments Sunday were due to be condemned by Romania’s head-of-state.
President Klaus Iohannis strongly opposed legislation that would grant limited autonomy to Szeklerland. He accused opposition legislators supporting the law of “fighting behind the scenes in parliament to give Transylvania to the Hungarians.”
HUNGARIAN AUTONOMY
More than 600,000 Székelys, most of them of Hungarian descent, comprise nearly half of Romania’s Hungarian minority, according to official estimates.
The Székelys were cut off and subjected to a policy of assimilation, including heavy restrictions on using their language even in churches under Romania’s former communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
Since the collapse of communism, they have been hoping for more autonomy, encouraged by László Tőkés, an ethnic Hungarian Reformed pastor and politician from Romania.
Tőkés lost a high state award because he supported the autonomy of Székely Land.
He received the Star of Romania for his crucial role in the Revolution that ended Ceausescu’s rule with the death of the dictator and his wife Elena by firing squad on Christmas Day in 1989.
ANTI-HUNGARIAN STATEMENTS
“The anti-Hungarian statements of the Romanian head of state [Klaus Iohannis] include the withdrawal of the award,” Tőkés said recently.
“This deprived not only me of the Romanian state award but also the Hungarian community, which opposed the Ceausescu dictatorship in 1989 in Timisoara. ”
Ethnic Hungarians comprise roughly six percent of Romania’s total population of 21.3 million people.
Like Hungary, Romania joined the European Union earlier this century.
But with the EU facing independence-seeking hot spots in several member states, it remains unclear when or if it backs Székely Land’s autonomy and steps up support for ethnic Hungarians.
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