Justice doesn’t care about plaques insulting Hungarians

Justice in Romania can be so surprising — people just sit and wonder. The prosecution of Kolozs/Cluj County decided they simply did not care anymore about who placed a bronze plaque insulting Hungarians on the Matthias Corvinus Monument.

The investigation lasted nine years — then they just dropped the case and left the plaque in place. According to this, anyone can put any plaque anywhere, without any consequences.

The case regarding the Iorga inscription has now been dropped; there was no proof and there was no defendant.

But let’s just review how this all happened:

• The classified historic monument was created by János Fadrusz and inaugurated in 1902; it is a statue of Matthias Corvinus, one of the most renowned Kings of Hungary, who was born in Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca

• The Matthias Corvinus Monument in the center of Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca was inaugurated again in April 2011, following a renovation executed via a partnership between the Hungarian and Romanian governments.
• After one month, unknown perpetrators placed a bronze plaque on the pedestal of the monument with a quotation from Nicolae Iorga, a Romanian historian, indicating that Matthias Corvinus had Romanian origins.
• The mayor at the time, Sorin Apostu, called the placement of the marker a historical redemption.
• Hunor Kelemen, then minister of culture (now President of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania) and Balázs Gergely, President of the Treasured Cluj Association, denounced the plaque, especially as it was placed on the monument without any permit.
• The prosecution has never been able to find the perpetrator and now doesn’t care to try anymore.

The prosecution also did not care that in the documents regarding the restoration, there was not one word about the placement of a plaque like this and no construction permit was issued in the matter.

According to the decision closing the case, anyone can place any inscription anywhere in this country from now on. But we all know this double standard very well: The laws apply only if the case is about the Hungarian community — its symbols and inscriptions and its rights regarding the use of the Hungarian language.

The inscription attributed to Nicolae Iorga: ‘’He was victorious in battles, he suffered a defeat only from his own people in Moldvabánya/Baia when he started off for the undefeatable Moldovia” was first placed on the pedestal of the statue in 1932. The inscription, which indicates Corvinus’ people were in fact Romanian, not Hungarian, was removed in 1940, after Northern Transylvania was re-attached to Hungary. But Gheorghe Funar, Cluj’s extreme nationalist mayor returned it in 1992. During the restoration on the pedestal, the original Mathias Rex inscription designed by János Fadrusz was used.

Featured image: főtér.ro

Author: Blanka Székely

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