Half of Romania’s citizens believe Hungary’s politics towards Transylvania aims at the “tearing away” of the region, according to a survey conducted by INSCOP Research.
The Romanian polling company published its survey results on Monday. When asked whether they believe Hungary wishes to take Transylvania away from Romania, 49.5 percent of respondents said yes, 43.2 percent said no, and 7.4 percent either did not respond, or did not know what to respond.
Fact
After the disintegration of Austria-Hungary at the end of the First World War, ethnic Romanians in Transylvania
proclaimed union with Romania, and the region became a part of the kingdom. Today, roughly 1.2 million ethnic Hungarians live in Romania, making up one of the largest ethnic minorities in Europe.
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Another topic important to Hungarians, the survey asked if Romanians believe the rights of Transylvania’s national minorities should be protected. 87.2 percent responded yes, while 11 percent said no.
INSCOP also asked a few other interesting questions to those being surveyed. The poll found that more than half of Romanians believe that the entry of their country into the Schengen zone is being obstructed because of the economic interests of certain European Union countries. 43.5 percent believe Romania is not fulfilling the necessary obligations for entry.
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78 percent believe that Romanians are viewed as second class citizens in the EU, 56 percent believe foreign corporations are responsible for Romania’s pollution, and more than 35 percent believe that the country’s highway construction is not going according to plan because foreign powers wish to obstruct Romania’s development.
Featured photo illustration by Edit Kátai/MTI