Csaba Sógor in the EP: The use of minority community symbols still prohibited in Romania
The government in Romania continues to persecute people for the use of minority community symbols – stated Csaba Sógor during the European Parliament’s Strasbourg plenary session on Monday, October the 3rd.
The RMDSZ MEP explained that the United States’ ambassador to Romania experienced this himself when the media published a photograph of him and local authority leaders holding the Szekler flag.
"The photo stirred a scandal in the Romanian media, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs needed to issue a statement emphasizing the importance of respecting the sensitivities related to the subject." – explained Csaba Sógor. The MEP also noted that not all community symbols cause such an uproar in Romania, many regions have their own flags, which they can use freely. Romanian authorities only prohibit the use of the Szekler flag, a symbol of the Hungarian community in Romania.
In the opinion of Csaba Sógor this is discriminatory, even if we take the so called sensitivity of the subject into consideration. He also reminded his colleagues in the European Parliament that a court in Romania has ruled against using the term Szeklerland as a tourist destination. “In other words, it is forbidden to call a region by the name that its inhabitants have called it for centuries. Would we consider this a sensitive subject in Europe?”– asked Csaba Sógor.
