Vandals have spray painted over the Hungarian name of the city on a bilingual town exit sign in Nagyvárad/Oradea, the Bihar/Bihor County’s RMDSZ party (Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania) has announced.
For reasons that await clarification, unknown suspects have spray painted over the Hungarian version of the city name on the bilingual sign informing motorist they are existing Nagyvárad/Oradea as they reach the end of Ogorulul Street. City counselor Dalma Pethő was alerted via text message by a local citizen and with the help of Sándor Botházy, president of the Bihar County’s RMDSZ party, the two removed the black spray paint from the sign and made the Hungarian text visible again.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that Hungarian text on town signs has been covered by black spray paint. In Nagyvárad, such an act of vandalism happened just a couple months ago, mid-December last year. The same month, similar actions were reported in Kisszentlőrinc/Lăureni in Maros/Mureș County.
Earlier, in March 2018, unknown suspects vandalized the town entry sign in Sepsiszentgyörgy/Sfântu Gheorghe (Kovászna/Covasna County), and Palotailva/Lunca Bradulul (Maros/Mureș County), and the list can go on as we go back in time. The latter happened in February last year. In an unfortunate turn of events, no suspects were identified, which gives a green light for further vandalism, igniting ire between the two ethnic communities.
