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The Save Romania Union (USR) has withdrawn its draft law on administrative reorganization at the request of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), the party representing the Hungarian minority announced on Tuesday evening.
“The Hungarian community in Romania showed unity and strength on December 1, and the majority political formations must also take this strength into account, they cannot decide without us. It was with this strength that we asked today in the Parliament to withdraw the draft law on administrative reorganization with provisions that were detrimental to our community, and the USR withdrew the proposal,” Attila Cseke, head of the RMDSZ Senate faction, was quoted as saying in a statement.
He recalled that the USR had “dusted off the Basescu administrative reorganization draft” and this autumn it had resubmitted to parliament the legislative amendment also advocated by the former head of state.
The draft included several provisions that were harmful to Romania and the Hungarian community, such as the absorption of smaller municipalities, the abolition of small towns and the dismemberment of the territory where Hungarian communities live,
he said.
The draft would also have resulted in local and county government administration being moved further away from citizens, the RMDSZ politician added.
The leader of the opposition USR, that defines itself as a center-right party, and two of his deputies submitted the first draft of the party’s administrative reform package to the Bucharest parliament in October. The law would have slimmed down the state by drastically reducing the number of local governments. The USR proposed to merge counties into development regions, leaving seven counties instead of the current 41, to exclude municipalities with less than 20,000 inhabitants from the status of city, and to merge villages with less than 3,000 inhabitants.
In a press conference on Monday, Hunor Kelemen, the president of the RMDSZ, announced that his party would recommend to Hungarians in Transylvania to vote for the “lesser evil,” Elena Lasconi, in the second round of the Romanian presidential election on Sunday.
In exchange for the support, he said, the expectation for Elena Lasconi is that the draft administrative law put forward by the USR should be withdrawn or rejected.
“This will not become law, we will protect Hungarian counties and communities,” underlined the RMDSZ president.
The second round of the presidential election in Romania on December 8 will decide whether USR President Elena Lasconi or Calin Georgescu – who is openly sympathetic to fascist ideas and is supported by parties considered anti-Hungarian and extremist – will be the next President of Romania.
Via MTI, Featured image: Facebook/Elena Lasconi