FUEN at the 12th Congress of the RMDSZ

On 17-18 April, 778 delegates, 150 guests and 120 journalists were present at the election congress of the Hungarian political organisation in Romania, which celebrated 25 years since its establishment.

 In his address the FUEN President referred to recent developments in Romania: the authorities have questioned the right to use community symbols, an investigation on the restitution process to the historical Church properties started and the proposed national safety and public security strategy of the Romanian Internal Affairs Ministry qualifies all claims for ethnic autonomy national as a security threat.

Expressing the conviction of the European minority communities, Hans Heinrich Hansen declared: “These are not acceptable developments in a European democracy. The majority should understand that having minority rights or granting autonomy does not mean that the majority will lose anything, rather it will mean a more balanced society, where every community can develop itself by its own institutions.”

He praised the political wisdom of the leaders of the Hungarian community who have chosen the use of democratic tools and parliamentary democracy to achieve rights for the Hungarians. FUEN appreciates RMDSZ’s active membership, its continuous support and personal involvement of President Hunor Kelemen and FUEN Vice President Loránt Vincze.

The FUEN president also spoke about the role of the European umbrella organisation in the upcoming years to promote the protection of autochthonous national minorities in the EU and to contribute to solving regional or local tensions between minority and majority. Expressing the main goal of the European minority organisation, Hans Heinrich Hansen stated: “we want inclusion of the minority rights among the fundamental rights of the European citizens.”

The RMDSZ Congress re-elected Hunor Kelemen for a new 4 years term as president and adopted several congress resolutions, which will as policy paper form the basis for the activity of the Hungarian community representatives in Romania.

The speech by President Hans Heinrich Hansen