Autonomy Bills for Szeklerland Rejected in Romania
The Romanian Chamber of Deputies has rejected draft autonomy bills for Szeklerland and Hungarians living in Transylvania, submitted by Zoltán Zakariás and József Kulcsár-Terza.
The lower house of the bicameral Romanian Parliament discussed three draft autonomy bills under emergency procedure. The plenary session was hybrid, with MEPs who were not present joining and voting online. First on the agenda was the autonomy statute for Szeklerland, followed by the cultural autonomy statute for the Hungarian national community and the draft framework law on the cultural autonomy of national communities.
In the plenary session, all Romanian parties supported the rejection of the draft bills. Of the 329 members of the lower house of parliament present or voting online, 260 supported the rejection of the first two bills, 16 voted against, and one abstained. The rejection of the framework law on cultural autonomy for national communities was supported by 255 MPs, 15 voted against, and one abstained.
The three draft autonomy bills were submitted to the Romanian Chamber of Deputies on December 20 by Zoltán Zakariás, President of the Hungarian Alliance of Transylvania (EMSZ), and József Kulcsár-Terza, acting President of the Hungarian Civic Force (MPE). In their speeches, the initiators stressed that they were not asking for anything in the drafts that did not exist in other democratic states in Europe. József Kulcsár-Terza said that the people of Szeklerland want “freedom within the borders of Romania” through territorial self-determination. He called for a dialogue, recalling that the Romanian state had promised to guarantee the rights of national minorities in the 1918 Declaration of Gyulafehervár, which declared Transylvania’s accession to Romania.
Zoltán Zakáriás also stressed the importance of dialogue, drawing the attention of MEPs to the example of Vojvodina (Serbia) for the cultural autonomy of the Hungarian national community. He stressed that the drafts are “declarations of loyalty” of national minorities to the Romanian state.
Alfred Simons, the acting president of the Chamber of Deputies, said that such “toxic” drafts should not be debated but only rejected. The Social Democratic Party (PSD) politician announced that he would launch a consultation to ensure that similar bills could not be tabled in the Romanian Parliament.
The decision by the Chamber of Deputies was welcomed by Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu on Thursday. “Romania’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are non-negotiable,” News.ro quoted the Prime Minister as saying. He described as “toxic” and “revisionist” the draft autonomy bills, whose protracted debate he said would have favored extremist politicians.
The statute of autonomy for Szeklerland, submitted to the Romanian legislature for the fifth time, was rejected by the Romanian majority on each occasion. The three draft bills will be debated by the Senate as the decisive body.
Via MTI, Featured image: Facebook/Székely National Council
