On Tuesday, the House of Committees of the Chamber of Deputies rejected the proposal of establishing a subcommittee, led by the infamous Dan Tanasă, that would have dealt with the problems of Romanians living in the country’s Hungarian counties of Kovászna (Covasna), Hargita (Harghita) and Maros (Mureș). The new subcommittee would have been a part of the committee of human rights, religious and minority issues of the lower chamber, Romanian news agency Agerpres reports.
The position of the chairman of the proposed subcommittee would have been held by Dan Tanasă, representative of AUR (Alliance for the Unity of Romanians) who is famous for his anti-Hungarian statements (read about some of his “accomplishments” against the Hungarian minority HERE, HERE or HERE). Daniel Ghiţă, representative of the Social Democratic Party, would have been the vice president of the subcommittee and Alin Coleşa (AUR), the secretary.
The members of the committee of human rights, religious and minority issues issued a statement addressed to the Chamber of Deputies, wherein they argued that there is a need to establish a subcommittee that would deal with the problems of Romanians living in Kovászna, Hargita and Maros counties, where they are a numeric minority. As the members stressed, the Romanians living in that region have expressed a need to preserve their cultural identity and traditions. An interesting aspect about this proposal is that it is Dan Tanasă who objects to the Hungarian community trying to preserve their own cultural identity and traditions in the region that they live in.
According to the statement, in the last decade, the Romanian National Council for Combating Discrimination (CNCD) has found dozens of cases that prove that the local administrative authorities in Kovászna, Hargita and Maros counties regularly discriminate on an ethnic basis against the Romanian community.
The purpose of the proposed subcommittee would have been to have a “constructive dialogue” with the local administrative institutions, the prefecture and the public institutions of the three counties, in order to identify the special problems of the Romanians living in that region. The subcommittee would have prepared reports, submitted complaints to the competent public institutions and proposed laws to protect the Romanians living in those counties, the statement says.
Title image: Dan Tanasă argued that there are subcommittees for Hungarian and Roma issues, as well as for civic society, but none that take care of the issues of the Romanian community living in Szeklerland. Photo: Parlamentul Romaniei – Camera Deputatilor Facebook Page
