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Romania declares Trianon day a national holiday

May 21st, 2020

Commentators deplore the decision by the Romanian parliament as insensitive to the feelings of ethnic Hungarians, and ascribe it to irrational fears which survive despite sweeping changes in the past century.

In a demonstrative move just before the 100th anniversary of the Trianon Treaty, which handed Transylvania to Romania in the wake of World War One, both houses of the Romanian Parliament declared June 4 a national holiday, to be commemorated throughout the country.

On Mandiner, Milán Constantinovits points out that June 4 will not become a bank holiday in Romania, and therefore the impact of the law will be largely symbolic. It certainly hurts the sensitivity of the over one million strong Hungarian minority, but its purpose is mainly to rally ethnic Romanians behind the various political parties. He suggests that, a century after having annexed Transylvania, Romania still believes that the Hungarian minority whose numbers are steadily decreasing represents a risk. As long as that is the case, ethnic Hungarians must just try and survive, and wait for better times to come, he concludes.

On Azonnali Gergő Illés believes the Romanian Parliament reacted to the decision by Hungarian lawmakers ten years ago declaring June 4 “the day of national togetherness” and to the various initiatives underway in Hungary to commemorate the centenary of what is largely seen as one of the most tragic events in national history.

In a long essay on the same site, Márk Sima opines that Romanian decision-makers still refuse to realise that Hungary is legitimately concerned about certain matters within Romania and considers ethnic Hungarians as part of the national/cultural community of Hungarians. That refusal is all the more striking, he remarks, because Romania itself considers that ethnic Romanians in Moldova are part and parcel of the Romanian nation.

 

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