Transylvanian Hungarians are increasingly refusing to be used as a voting mass for the not entirely transparent political goals of the RMDSZ. Continue reading
On Saturday, Déli Szemle published a video in which a Romanian man from Belgrade attempted to “rewrite” history by tearing down the Hungarian flag from the memorial stone honoring the Siege of Nándorfehérvár and replacing it with a Romanian ribbon. While looking at the camera, he declares: “We are putting up a Romanian ribbon. The Hungarians are stealing our history everywhere. Transylvania… János Hunyadi.” He then continues: “Until 1944, there was nothing here but swampland. Then New Belgrade was built, not with money, but for free. Communist brigades came, Romanians and Hungarians alike, and worked for free. My grandmother was also involved.”
“This video is not just an outburst of an angry individual, it is an example of someone arbitrarily appropriating symbolic spaces of memory and presenting their own misconceptions as historical truth. That is why we must respond. Not with a war of flags, but with facts. We must not allow the rise of extreme Romanians to spill over into the peaceful world of Hungarians and Serbs,” wrote the Déli Szemle.
According to the website, Alex B. is a Romanian from Belgrade who has become known in recent years as an activist. He runs his own YouTube channel and has competed in several parliamentary elections, but has never managed to secure a seat.
He openly professes his commitment to Romania and constantly criticizes the Serbian authorities for what he considers to be the oppression of Romanians.
According to Maszol, the Romanian man from Belgrade has talked about his beliefs -how Hungarians are stealing their history and that János Hunyadi is actually a “Romanian hero”- in interviews conducted in Romanian. This “flag-swapping” act is one of many such incidents: according to his own account, he regularly replaces the Hungarian ribbon with a Romanian one, thus “restoring the truth.”
Via Maszol via Déli Szemle, Featured photo: Hét Nap Online