From Bucharest, the impression prevails that the voices of the Hungarians are welcome, but that their wishes are less so or not at all.Continue reading
The high turnout of Transylvanian Hungarians in the second round of the presidential elections in Romania on Sunday shows that they understood the significance, gravity, dangers, and opportunities of this election, said Hunor Kelemen, president of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), after the polls closed on Sunday in Cluj-Napoca.
Nicușor Dan won the second round of the presidential election with 53.60% of the vote, while the nationalist, anti-Hungarian George Simion lost with 46.40% of the vote.
The independent candidate supported by the RMDSZ received the most votes in Hargita County with 90.78% and won in all counties with a large Hungarian population: Kovászna County (88.42%), Kolozs County (70.16%), Maros County (67.02%), and Szilágy County (62.12%).
Hunor Kelemen emphasized that voter turnout was high in the Transylvanian Counties where the Hungarian community is in the majority or lives in large numbers, showing that the Hungarian community in Transylvania has once again “behaved responsibly.”
The majority of Hungarian voters voted for the independent candidate Nicușor Dan, in line with the recommendation of the Hungarian parties and churches. I take my hat off to the Hungarian community in Transylvania,
the RMDSZ leader explained.
The politician recalled that Romanian society had gone through a difficult election campaign and was very divided. He pointed out that the very high turnout gave the new president a great deal of legitimacy, which he would need as the country faced difficult times ahead, difficult decisions to be made, and difficult “parliamentary mathematics” to be applied in order to obtain a parliamentary majority for important decisions.
“The Hungarian community in Transylvania has a strong instinct for survival, and together with the silent Romanian majority, it has managed to put the brakes on, keep Romania on the right track, and stop anti-Hungarian sentiment,” Árpád Antal said in response to a question from maszol.ro. The mayor of Sepsiszentgyörgy believes that life in Romania will not be easy with Dan’s victory, but it will be difficult in a different way.
Romania is in big trouble, the country is facing serious budgetary and economic problems that will have to be addressed in the coming months and years,
the influential politician emphasized.
The Transylvanian Hungarian Alliance thanked everyone “who did not allow themselves to be swayed.” “In the first round, we decided in favor of change; now we are deciding on the direction of that change.”
We Hungarians have taken the lead and unanimously rejected extremism,
emphasized the second-largest party of Hungarians in Romania, which has supported Dan’s candidacy from the beginning.
At the time of writing this article, the winner had only thanked the citizens of the Republic of Moldova who also have Romanian citizenship, but not the ethnic Hungarians who also supported him massively.
Via MTI, maszol.ro; Featured photo: MTI/Veres Nándor