Tuesday, November 15, 2005

The minority law and the far right

The political scene in Romania is currently gripped by the debate over the minority law. It’s difficult to find English language sources regarding this debate but I think it’s worth looking at anyway. What follows is what I’ve been able to glean about this debate from my limited Romanian and Hungarian and from talking to people. If there are any inaccuracies, I hope someone will please correct me via the comments page.

From what I understand, there is a bill before parliament to enshrine in law basic rights for minorities. It’s not that these rights don’t already exist in practice, but that they are not formally stated anywhere [Edit: Note comments from Andrei below]. This bill is proposed by the UDMR which is the Hungarian party in the Romanian parliament. [The UDMR is a fairly moderate centre right party politically, but its main function is to represent the interests of the Hungarian minority in Romania.] Because of the political makeup of the parliament, the UDMR are almost always a partner in whatever coalition government is ruling, and one condition of their joining the government is that they get to put this bill before parliament. So this isn’t the first time it’s come up, but each time it does, it seems like the dominant coalition partner (whether this be the DA as now, or the PSD as before) renege on the deal and start trying to weasel out of it.

So now it’s come up again. What amounts to a fairly watered down version of the original bill is up before parliament and it is being attacked left, right, and centre. Mostly, of course, by the ultra right, for whom minority rights are anathema. Cornelius Vadim Tudor, the ultra scumbag leader of the ultra rightist Party of the Romanian Nightmare (not actually the real name of the party), is pulling out all the stops to fill the population with fear of this terrifying Hungarian minority. Apparently this law will subject Romanians to oppression by those evil Hungarians. It’s an old trick – white supremacists argue that laws promoting diversity and human rights are actually laws designed to attack white people. So it is with Vadim Tudor. Vadim Tudor is the worst kind of bigot – he’s actually quite intelligent I think and he knows this fear-laden rhetoric is the way to mobilise people to support him. So, he whips people into a nationalistic fervour by claiming that the minorities are out to attack their right to exist and to be Romanian or something. In a recent debate he said, and I swear I’m not making this up “Do you really want Romanians to defend themselves alone? They will! I promise you things will go that far!” That’s practically inciting civil war, and he gets away with that shit, and not only that, but they give him vast amounts of air time on TV. He is utter utter scum. He also described the UDMR as a “terrorist organization”, just to really ratchet up the fear factor among his rural uneducated voting public.

Now, if it were just him attacking the bill, it wouldn’t be a surprise at all, but in fact the supposedly left wing PSD have also seized upon his coat tails for a spot of populist bigotry and have launched into the debate. I didn’t have any respect for them before, but now what little hope I held out for this bunch has gone right out the window. Also members of the DA (the dominant part of the coalition) have been speaking up against it, which means probably that it’s dead in the water. The media here are focussing on what this means for the government and whether the UDMR will pull out of the coalition and bring down the government, forcing early elections. But this is not the real issue (it just allows people to not think about the real issue).

What then, is the real issue? The debate around the bill seems to be centred on the phrase “cultural autonomy”, which, as far as I can tell, allows minorities the right to have an education in their native language and so on. In the case of Hungarians, at least, this already happens (at least up to age 18). What the anti camp are really against, I suspect, is the word “autonomy” featuring anywhere in any document ever. This bill does not, categorically, request any kind for autonomy for Harghita and Covasna counties, nor for Transylvania as a whole. But, the people against it like to present it as the thin end of the wedge and the beginning of this Hungarian master plan to break Transylvania (or parts of it) away from Romania. And of course they then hold up the example of these poor oppressed Romanians living in Harghita and Covasna counties who are already suffering mightily at the hands of these brutal Magyars, and if this master plan comes to fruition will be somehow oppressed and magyarised as they were at the end of the 19th century.

The other issue is language. Now it seems that many Romanians are convinced that Transylvanian Hungarians cannot and will not speak Romanian. I don’t know where they get this idea from, but it seems to have a lot of currency, even among well educated Romanians. Now, it is possible, that in remote villages people don’t speak Romanian well, or in some cases maybe at all. But Romanian is taught in schools, kids need to pass their Romanian exams to get through the various general exams and to leave high school with a qualification. I can honestly say I don’t know and have never met any Romanian citizen who doesn’t speak Romanian. Maybe they’re not all completely fluent and maybe they have an accent, but they speak the language. What seems to upset people is that, shockingly, they persist in speaking to one another in their native language. People who are otherwise quite intelligent have asked me whether this is “normal”. Whether it’s normal that people speak their first language to each other. I have to respond that yes it is, and to deny the people the right to use their native language is characteristic of dictatorships and oppressive regimes. And to offer people an education in their native language in their home country is not in some way weird or anti-patriotic whatever it is they fear. Democratic Spain for example offers Catalans and Basques the right to an education in their native language, while under Franco there were attempts to ban the languages outright. Which of these two governments is more modern and “European”? (I ought to note that one of the bizarrest arguments against the minority law is that it is “un-European”). The only thing that I can possibly imagine is that in the twisted political climate of fear and insecurity brought about by the posturing of idiots like Vadim Tudor, when people hear a conversation conducted by Hungarian Romanians in Hungarian they assume it to be some kind of plotting against the state.

To close, I have to say that listening to the rhetoric of the ultra nationalist PRM, while knowing that they command about 12-13% of recent polls, is the first time since I came here that I have wondered if just maybe there could be some kind of mini civil war in Transylvania. My hope is that the majority of the supporters of CVT and his ilk are actually not from Transylvania and in fact live in isolated rural communities in Oltenia and the like where they can’t do any damage. But this kind of hard line talk of terrorism and of Romanians “defending themselves” is just the kind of thing that Milosevic was saying in 1989. Fortunately, CVT doesn’t have the power that Milosevic did then, but it’s a slippery slope and as long as he’s given a platform to air his odious views, the damage is being done.

21 comments:

Andrei Canciu said...

"It’s not that these rights don’t already exist in practice, but that they are not formally stated anywhere."

Yes, they are. How could you think Romania could have hopes of joining the EU, if they weren't ?

So this is the reason that makes me think that the only purpose of this law is just to get the word "autonomy" written somewhere in some law, while creating a lot of bureaucracy in the process.

Andy said...

Thanks andrei. Could you say more about what the law currently is and what the proposal says? As I say I'm struggling to find commentary in English on this, and my Romanian and Hungarian tends to leave me uncertain of the exact arguments being bandied around.

Andrei Canciu said...

You can check the Education Law at this address (in Romanian) - I'm not sure if it is the latest version:

http://www.edu.ro/leginv.htm

"Capitolul XII" mentions minorities specifically.

You can also search the text of the Constitution (2003) for the pattern "minorit" which should find all references to minorities:

http://www.constitutia.ro/

I couldn't find anywhere a complete description of this new law; my opinions on this law are thus based on what I gleaned from reading the daily newspapers.
I have to say I'm not against this law (as long is it conforms to the Constitution which I hope it does); if it keeps Hungarians happy, so be it. I just don't think it's such an essential law as some claim.

Andy said...

Thanks, again, Andrei, that's helpful. So, now I'm really interested to know what the current bill says that's over and above what's here.

Andrei Canciu said...

It turns out the text of the Education Law I pointed you to, is outdated.
The law no. 151 from 30/07/1999 offers more rights to minorities such that they no longer have to learn History and Geography in Romanian and guarantees the right to study in the mother tongue for all forms of education (among other rights):

Legea 151

If the link stops working you can go to www.indaco.ro and login using the password Evaluare (then manually search for this law).

Andrei Canciu said...

Sorry, I made a mistake: the two texts both state that History and Geography are to be studied in the mother tongue during the first 4 years, after that in Romanian. I don't know if this is the current provision.

Andy said...

Thanks very much for your extensive comments romesperi.

It is a pro-minority policy that will advantage ALL minorities.

Yes, this is what I thought, but obviously living where I do it is clear as to which minority is uppermost in my mind.

Secondly - the PRM has about 6-8% of the vote in the current moment.

I saw a poll on TV on Monday night (I forget which channel) which had them at 13%. That's where I got the figure from.

Secondly, every country has a party like the PRM.

True, sadly, and I never meant to imply that Vadim Tudor and the PRM are phenomena unique to Romania. But, he did get into the presidential run-off a few years ago didn't he? (again not unique, since Le Pen did in France too)

most Romanians just brush off with a laugh and don't take seriously.

I think that's true in the cities, but maybe in rural areas?

I don't think PRM would ever get in government even as a coalition partner

I hope you're right.

not to mention their power to incite a civil war!!

It's not so much civil war that I fear as an incident like the one in Targu Mures in 1990. If people like CVT can whip up the fervour of people about the threat to the nation presented by the Hungarians he could provoke an attack like that one. Fortunately I think if he did it would end quickly and it would be the death of him (politically, not literally) and his odious party

I am a Romanian living in Oradea, where 30% of the population is Hungarian, and we all get along really well.

Same here, I'd say. I really think Romania is a place that is relatively successfully dealing with its minority community. Which is why I get so vexed and angry by shit like CVT spouts and the plataform that the media here give him. He's on TV way more than Basescu and Nastase combined.

This interethnic relationship is only a perceived problem in Szekely Land, where supposedly if you ask for a bread in a shop in Romanian, the salesperson will ask you surprised in Hungarian. (Is this true, by the way? I doubt it.)

It sounds like a myth to me, though of course I couldn't be sure. I know that when I ask for something in a shop in bad Hungarian the shop assistants always switch to Romanian assuming I speak that instead. In Targu Mures it works in the opposite way, that I do know for sure. If you ask for something in Hungarian a polite Romanian shop assistant will say "poftim?", while a rude and obnoxious one will say "I don't speak that language" with a sneer.

Finally, it's important to understand that Romania's situation is different to Spain's. I've always compared the to, since Spain is an excellent example for minority rights. However, the Hungarians in Romania aren't a stateless minority,

Hmmm. I'm no sure that this is relevant actually. Yes there is a Hungarian state, but it's not the home of the people here, and to suggest it is can lead you down a very dangerous road I think. I'd be careful with that one. To look at it another way, if, let's say, Szekely land became independent (it won't, and I'm not advocating it, but just go with me here) would you accept as an argument for not giving rights to the Romanians of this area the fact that they are not stateless?


and because of their historical dominance of Transylvania, there still is a degree of mistrust and this notion of revenge, even. In contrast, the Basques were discriminated throughout history, and were *always* a minority, hence the situation is different.

This is very true. And in a sense this is why I think the situation is dangerous. Bosnia was a place where there was this simmering historical resentment against the Bosniaks since the time of the Ottomans, which it only took unscrupulous people to make political capital from for it to erupt. This is why I compared CVT to Milosevic.

But, again, I don't think there will be a civil war and I don't think Transylvania is in any real danger of turning into Bosnia. But I do think, and ultimately this is my point, that CVT and his ilk ought to be given no platform to spout their views. They have the right to hold those views, and to say them, but as long as the media panders to them and keeps inviting CGT to speak on chat shows and discussion programmes and the like, they are promoting hate speech and making it more likely that someone is going to take his invective and use it as justification to attack some minorities.

Andy said...

I'd love to hear more about your Roma project. Sounds great.

As for the skinhead wing of the extreme right, to be honest I feel less worried about them. Yes as individuals they are more worrying, but they are decidedly marginal and have no national platform. PRM does have a national platform and a lot of coverage in the media. To put it another way, if some 25 year old skinhead in jackboots shows up in a village in Oltenia telling people that the Hungarians are dominating Romania and need to be stopped, I think most people wouldn't pay any attention. But when someone like CVT tells them that they would and they do.

Anonymous said...

Hey andy a couple of notes from reading your previous entries.

1) Kohlrabi in Romanian is "gulie". There is a great free Rom-English dictionary online at www.dictionare.com
2) Not all cars with "B" are from Bucharest. The ones beginning with B and are ONLY numbers are leased cars, and could be domiciled in any judet.
3) "Hi", the Romanian command for "let's go" is spelled "hai". The plural is "haideti".
4) Keep the good work!

-Soj

Andy said...

Romesperi: Well, people here want the law to pass, and most think that it won't because of anti-Hungarian sentiment. Whether that is the right way of looking at it or not.

Most people here that I have spoken to have absolutely no problem with Romanians (at least with Romanians as individuals, and probably on a more general level with Transylvanian Romanians). I think they tend to distruct the political establishment and the Bucharest based media. Frankly I think what people would really prefer as a political system/solution is Transylvania wide autonomy, as opposed to some kind of Szekelyföld autonomy. (I also think is broadly true for Romanians who live in Miercurea Ciuc, despite their being co-opted by the far right as the symbol of the dangers inherent in autonomy)

However, what often intrigues me is the level of support for the UDMR. Given that, by my calculations, Hungarians make up just about 7% of the total population, and the UDMR seems to get around 5-7% in elections/polls, this means broadly speaking that more or less every Hungarian in the country is voting for them (unless they get Romanian or other minority voters which seems unlikely). So, while I don't think people really care about ethnicity on one level, they must do on another.

One more thing: The real anti-Romanian feeling (such as it is) comes not from Harghita or Covasna counties, but from Transylvanians who emigrated to Hungary in 1990 as soon as Ceausescu was toppled. For them, the Romanian oppression of Hungarians remains at the levels it was at in about 1985, and they are the ones who talk it up like it was people at each others throats. I recently met an American who lives in Budapest and when he heard where I lived he said "Wow, you guys are in the thick of things aren't you? That's where the real tension is, isn't it?" And I had to tell him, that no, I really don't see any ethnic tension outside of the media.

Having said that, nobody will take a holiday here on December 1st, or celebrate the day in any way. :-)

Anonymous said...

I couldn't help but noticing you stating that PRM gets a lot of media coverage. Well, I've personally seen PRM or Vadim about 3-5 times for the past 6 months on TV. But I'm from Constanta.

Maybe local stations are paying more attention to him where you are, since he's a complete asshole towards minorities?

Cheers,
D

Andy said...

On the media, I am only referring to the national TV really. We only have one local channel here and I've never seen CVT on it. But when I flick through the channels each evening I can usually guarantee that he will be on one of them (that means he will be on one of TVR1, TVR2, ProTV, Antena1, Prima, Realitatea, NationalTV and B1 - I'm not sure if that last one is the actual name of the channel, I can't really read their logo). I'm really not making this up. The only person who appears on TV as much as, if not more than, CVT is the even more repulsive Gigi Becali (and that's because he gets to appear on the sports channel too).

On the devolution question, the idea of Transylvanian autonomy (of whatever form) is something that Hungarians I know would like. Not because it will create a majority Hungarian area, or even close to it (as you point out), but that as you mentioned before in earlier answers, the Transylvanians as a whole (Romanian and Hungarian alike) seem to be fairly comfortable with one another and feel closely linked. Obviously this doesn't apply to all, and the Roma here are as oppressed as they are everywhere else. The real feelings of resentment between communities appear (from my vantage point at least) to be between Wallachian Romanians and Transylvanian Hungarians.

Having said all that I realise that CVT himself is a Transylvanian as, I assume, is Gheorghe Funar.

Andy said...

Great comment, romesperi. Thanks again for the time you have spent on this page and the excellent and well-informed comments you have made. I really am enjoying reading them.

I'm intrugued by the Vojvodina situation - do you have any links you can point me in the direction of? Last year when there was a referendum in Hungary on whether to grant dual citizenship to Hungarians from outside the borders, the area that was held up as being the one in which Hungarians were most systematically oppressed was Vojvodina, as I recall.

(The language thing works both ways I have discovered - words which I know of as Hungarian are actually specific to Transylvania and often derived from Romanian).

Anonymous said...

"And, despite the controversy now, I do think that this autonomy will be achieved."

I doubt it, simply because this involves changing the Constitution and those who support it will not have a majority.

Anonymous said...

I would add that Spain's Constitution was built from the ground up (after Franco's death) to offer a high degree of autonomy to all regions, in order to prevent future dictators coming to power as a counterbalance to movements for independence.

Anonymous said...

Rejecting my comments sounds suspiciously like something Dubya NEVER did... Oh well.

By the way, now I'm using again the Anonymous feature you enabled for your blog.

Andy said...

Dubya accepted your comments? Who are you? Karl Rove?

Anyway, I haven't rejected a single comment since I turned this fucntion on, so I have no idea what you (whoever you are) are talking about.

Anonymous said...

"If people realise that Szekely autonomy is in the interests of Romania as a democratic state, they will vote for it in due time."

If in 10 years time they will still have this attitude:

"nobody will take a holiday here on December 1st, or celebrate the day in any way."

I won't vote to give autonomy to anyone.

Andy said...

That's nice of you albinel. How thoughtful.

Why did you quote back the thing about Dec 1st? Are the two things related? And should Hungarians celebrate Dec 1st? Why would they? Would you celebrate the "reunification day of Hungary" if Transylvania reverted to being ruled from Budapest? (Of course you wouldn't and no-one would expect you to). It's quite a normal reaction. People don't tend to celebrate crushing defeats.

Anonymous said...

And should Hungarians celebrate Dec 1st? Why would they?...People don't tend to celebrate crushing defeats.

I fully understand that. The thing is that the defeat happened almost 90 years ago. Isn't it gradually time to get over it ? Virtually all Hungarians I met (not all that many) were very nice people, but held a grudge against Romania.

Serbs basically hated Muslims because of what the Ottomans did to them hundreds of years ago. For God's sake, hundreds of years ! When does it stop ? When has "enough time passed" ? When does one say, "OK, now we look forward" ? Does such a time ever come ? When will it come for Hungarians in Romania ?

Andy, you have to understand that, rightly or wrongly, many Romanians generally believe that every request made by the Hungarians is only another step towards their goal of some sort of separation from Romania. Many believe that UDMR leaders pay only lip service to the Constitution when it comes to territorial integrity. This right or wrong perception will persist as long as those leaders will not come out in public and affirm their opposition to any sort territorial claims.

Andy, whether you like it or not, as long as this doesn't happen there will be distrust towards Hungarians. Not dislike (99% of the Romanians I know have absolutely no problem with Hungarians), but strong distrust.

I am myself part of a Romanian minority (well, in fact two minorities) and my first language is not Romanian. As far as I am concerned, Transilvania could become tomorrow part of Hungary (what a heresy to say :-) ). I've always believed that a Hungarian Transilvania would be a touristic paradise in Europe, given what Hungary has achieved touristically with, say, Balaton.

What I want to say is that, given the present situation, I fully understand the Romanians' lack of faith in UDMR's intentions. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I understand it. I would say the ball is in the Hungarians' court, and they should prove their good faith towards Romania, which happens to be their country. If they don't there will be little common ground, regardless of historical justifications.

One funny trivia; the minority that is most unhappy with the current situation is the one who was in power. Other minorities (like German, almost gone by now), which never held power, have never had big problems. Is this a sore looser, or just a coincidence ?

Andy, if you want a good deal, forget about the defeat and come towards the other side. Show some goodwill. Right now, Hungarians come over as perennial demanders, uncomfortable and unhappy to live as a minority in Romania. Shed that image, I'm sure you could achieve much more.

I'm am not criticizing the Hungarian position (even though it might seem so), I'm just telling you how I, pretty much a neutral and admitedly rather indifferent observer, perceive the situation.

Andy said...

Hmm, anonymous, and like you I could say the same thing: I'm just telling you how I, pretty much a neutral and admitedly rather indifferent observer, perceive the situation.

(I'm not Hungarian, I just happen to live in a predominantly Hungarian town in Romania.)

I have my doubts about the UDMR too, and I have serious doubts about the idea of autonomy for szekelyfold (that strikes me as just replacing one minority problem with another) - as I have said, I think the best solution would be Transylvanian autonomy. Not independence, but autonomy. It would still have a Romanian majority, but in my experience there is a lot of trust among transylvanians of both Romanian and Hungarian ethnicity. The problem/mistrust lies (in both directions) between Transylvanian Hungarians and Wallachian Romanians.

And yes, if I had to pick sides between the UDMR and the PRM I'd pick the UDMR every time. You see I hate bigotry and xenophobia. And that's what they (PRM) represent.