Loránt Vincze, MEP of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), greeted the Romanian President in Hungarian during the session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, reports the Cluj (Kolozsvár) news portal Krónika.
Klaus Iohannis spoke at the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday as part of the “This is Europe” debate. During his speech, Loránt Vincze greeted the Romanian President in Hungarian: “Jó napot kívánok!” (Good day!). The RMDSZ MEP then confronted Iohannis in Romanian, pointing out that he had used the Hungarian language as a political tool against his opponents in 2020.
This greeting in Hungarian is now understood by all Romanian citizens, not because the majority would have started to learn the language of the minority, but because you used the Hungarian language as a political tool against your political opponents in 2020,”
said the Transylvanian politician in front of the plenary. Loránt Vincze accused Klaus Iohannis of not having reacted to the Hungarian community’s proposal for a pact between the majority and minority since he took office. The MEP pointed out that there were successful models for the protection of minorities in EU member states that could not even be discussed in Bucharest. Meanwhile, extremism is gaining strength in Romania, said the RMDSZ MEP.
Xenophobia and anti-democratic, anti-European attitudes have their roots in the same place,”
warned Loránt Vincze. Klaus Iohannis listened to the speech by the Transylvanian-Hungarian MEP with a grin, while Romanian Foreign Minister Luminița Odobescu sat next to him.
As it is well known, Iohannis made his gesture, that caused great indignation after the House of Representatives in Bucharest had tacitly approved the draft State of Autonomy for Szeklerland (Székelyföld). The Senate, as the deciding body, later put the bill to the vote and rejected it. The Romanian president claimed at the time that the Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSD), being in opposition at the time, had helped the RMDSZ to get the proposal through the House of Representatives. Iohannis even accused the PSD of having struck a deal with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to annex Transylvania.
Good day, PSD!” he said in Hungarian.
“It is unbelievable, dear Romanians, what is happening in the (Romanian) parliament. The PSD has helped the RMDSZ to get a law through the House of Representatives that grants extensive autonomy to Szeklerland. It is unbelievable how far we have come with this PSD. It is unbelievable what agreements are made in parliament. While I, the government, and other authorities are fighting for people’s lives to get rid of this epidemic, the big PSD is fighting in the secret offices of Parliament to hand Transylvania over to the Hungarians. Good afternoon, Ciolacu! I wonder what Viktor Orbán from Budapest promised you in return for this agreement,” said the head of state in a statement at the Cotroceni Palace four years ago.
Iohannis was fined RON 5,000 (EUR 1000) by the National Council for Combating Discrimination (CNCD) for discrimination and violating the right to dignity on ethnic/national grounds.
The authority declared the statement to be hate speech.
However, Iohannis did not have to pay the fine imposed by the CNCD, as the Supreme Court in Bucharest overturned the fine in November 2022 after he appealed in court.
