What is the point of the new monument? Place names from historic Hungary are listed on the monument in stainless steel. What do the neighbours think?
Image source, AFP. Flags will be placed at half-mast at this border post, where Hungary, Romania, and Serbia meet. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Otto von Habsburg's heart was buried in Hungary in ; his body was buried separately in Austria.
Hungary removes uprising hero's statue Hungary: A timeline. Related Topics. Published 25 February On 3 November, the Romanian parliament declared that 4 June would be a new public holiday commemorating the signing of the Treaty of Trianon on that day in This document formalised the transfer of large territories then belonging to the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary to the neighbouring countries, including Romania.
The Hungarian problem, symbolised by the aforementioned document, resonates throughout society, and has traditionally been exploited as an instrument of political struggle by representatives of the main Romanian political groups. However, Hungarian politics does not constitute a real threat to the stability of Romania in the current international environment.
The geographic location of both countries obliges them to cooperate, especially in the fields of economy and energy, which mitigates their historical and symbolic disputes. Trianon: a blessing for some, a curse for others. This region, which has traditionally been inhabited by both Hungarians and Romanians, is of great importance for the culture and identity of both nations. For the vast majority of the last millennium, these areas belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary, but in the nineteenth century it was there, under conditions of increasing Magyarisation, where the grassroots Romanian national movement developed rapidly.
Its activists demanded political and linguistic rights for the fast-expanding Romanian population. After the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I and the collapse of Austria-Hungary in , Romania incorporated Transylvania, which then was already inhabited by a mostly Romanian population.
Under that treaty, Hungary lost more than two-thirds of its territory, including Transylvania, which is still seen today as an unfair partition of the state. However, Great Union Day Romanian Ziua Marii Uniri has traditionally been celebrated on 1 December because it was on that day in that the National Assembly of Romanians in Transylvania and Hungary passed a resolution in the city of Alba Iulia to annex the region. Nevertheless, Bucharest is very sensitive about any manifestations of Hungarian resentment towards Transylvania or any attempts to undermine Trianon, and considers them to be symptoms of revisionism.
The Romanian political elite prefers the model of Franco-German reconciliation which involved an accommodation at state level between two historic rivals and was not based on the redress of minority grievances.
Indeed in President Iliescu proposed that Romania and Hungary followed such a model when negotiations between the two states had become stalled However, it was not consulted by the Horn government about the basis of the agreement reached with Romania in August and the UDMR was rebuffed when it requested a meeting with the Hungarian premier to express its concerns about the absence of any reference to the collective rights the Hungarian minority in the draft of the proposed treaty.
They rallied behind the presidential candidacy of Emil Constantinescu who defeated the incumbent on 17 November. Millions of ex-Iliescu voters had acquired their own agenda for change and were ceasing to be reliant on a paternalistic and flawed leader.
The generally-incident free election campaign suggested that Romanian political culture was beginning to outgrow the Balkan stereotype dominated by images of partisanship, collectivist values, and nationalism In speeches, diplomatic initiatives, and approaches to the Hungarian minority, Romania's new rulers offered a new definition of patriotism which public opinion responded well to.
President Constantinescu made it clear that he saw the chief threats to Romanian national sovereignty as being internal rather than external in origin. He saw the need to abandon the post-communist strategy involving « the political instrumentalization of myths, religious fundamentalism skilfully used for political ends, isolation and other aggressive discourses » A development which would have been seen as novel and shocking only a short time before soon passed without notice and gave rise to no adverse reaction from Romanian society.
The image of Romanians and Hungarians as insiders and outsiders locked in a majority-minority power relationship was given a powerful dent. The prospects for inter-ethnic co-operation appeared promising since, joining the two Hungarians in the government, was Gavril Dejeu of the PNTCD, the new minister of the interior.
In , he had been orphaned at the age of 8 when his father was killed by occupying Hungarian troops, but he refused to be the prisoner of a tragic history and the determination to bury a divisive past soon became a hallmark of the reformist coalition The government had already published plans to introduce bilingual signs in areas of minority settlement and a Hungarian consulate was to be opened in Cluj in the summer.
These measures produced no public outcry and even the nationalist parties and the PDSR initially found it hard to rouse their supporters to protest in large numbers.
Adrian Severin, the new Romanian foreign minister, paid his first official visit abroad to Hungary at the end of Hungary's backing for Romanian entry into NATO was confirmed and a range of initiatives to strengthen defence and economic co-operation were announced. In his March visit to Budapest, Premier Ciorbea emphasized the importance of economic and military co-operation. He made it clear that he hoped to benefit from Hungarian investment and its greater experience of market economics in order to relaunch the Romanian economy This marked a change from the Iliescu era when the government was reluctant to encourage investment from Hungary.
Nationalist parties viewed such investment as tantamount to the re-colonization of the country and had discouraged it in parts of Transylvania where they enjoyed influence. He spoke about his own friendly contacts with Hungarians at school, university and while serving in the army. He established a precedent by sending greetings to Hungarians in Romania celebrating their national day on 15 March and by allowing state officials to participate in the festivities The significance of the gesture is clear when recalling the historical events in questions.
Conflicting nationalists neutralised each other's bid for freedom in a territory in revolt against imperial rule. Avram Iancu, the leader of the Romanian ers in Transylvania appealed to the Hungarians « to understand that weapons can never decide between you and us.
Fate put us in a homeland so that together we can strive to improve it and enjoy the results » If a reminder of this axiom was needed, it was provided in March when Prime Minister Ciorbea outlined a two-stage process whereby a Hungarian section would be established at Babes-Bolyai university in Cluj followed by the creation of a separate Hungarian language university Hitherto, the university had played a moderating role during the nationalist tensions provoked by the city's controversial mayor.
But one pro-rector threatened to resign while another backed the right of Hungarians to their own university ; Romanian and Hungarian student associations adopted different positions ; significantly, the Cluj branches of the main parties in government soon expressed their unhappiness about Ciorbea's move But little skill was displayed by the government as it took a new initiative in such a sensitive field.
Ciorbea took his stand without consulting the university's rector, Andrei Marga whom he would normally consider an ally because of his commitment to human rights and inter-ethnic tolerance. The government may have decided that a process of prior consultation would mobilise a coalition opposed to the Hungarian university.
However, its haste and failure to prepare public opinion left the government isolated. A retreat was then announced : after meeting with university leaders President Constantinescu announced that one university would survive but with Romanian and Hungarian sections.
Eventually, on 21 October , on the occasion of the Hungarian Prime Minister's visit to Bucharest, the Romanian government expressed its willingness to see a Hungarian language university founded in Transylvania Until the summer of public opinion displayed strong confidence in the ambitious economic strategy intended to relaunch the moribund state-led economy through sweeping privatisation measures and a sharp cut in state subsidies for the politically influential but economically doomed heavy industry sector.
Support for Ciorbea's shock-therapy plans, which included the liberalisation of prices for all foodstuffs and energy products was high, despite the adverse affect it was already having on the purchasing power of the average consumer Hungary's bid to join NATO was accepted but Romania was informed that it would have to re-apply in the next round of expansion. Constantinescu had prepared public opinion for the rebuff in June by warning that the pace of economic reform was proving a hindrance to Romania's admission chances There was little noticeable public anger that Hungary had been selected and Romania spurned.
If nothing else, this visit showed that Washington felt it important to provide top-level support to Romania's reformers, perhaps out of a belief that their success could have a stabilising influence in South-Eastern-Europe as a whole.
In the weeks following the Madrid summit, it was striking how the Ciorbea government found itself thrown on to the defensive as a result of coalition wrangles, hesitation about applying radical economic measures, and the failure to spearhead a firm anti-corruption campaign which had been one of the promises that had initially boosted its popularity.
In the second half of , they were able to exploit inter-ethnic controversies that were relatively minor ones compared with the Cluj university question and the inclusion of Hungarians in the government.
In Cluj Mayor Funar won fresh publicity and broke the law by having the Hungarian flag removed from the newly-opened Hungarian consulate in the city The closure of an orphanage containing mainly Romanian children in the UDMR-controlled town of Odorhei Secuiesc, led to claims that the welfare of the Romanian minority in Hungarian-dominated areas was in jeopardy because of arbitrary UDMR officials Finally, the decision by some UDMR councils to erect bilingual signs before the relevant law had been passed in parliament, gave rise to ill-feeling in parts of Transylvania which nationalists were able to exploit.
Indeed Tudor upstaged Iliescu at the PDSR's own conference on 21 June ; he was acclaimed by the audience and Iliescu warmly welcomed on to the podium a man who, just a year before, had accused the then Romanian President of being an agent of the KGB Hitherto he had always claimed to be equidistant between the claims of the UDMR and its Romanian chauvinist opponents. The pact brought the PDSR few rewards ; in Bucharest autumn rallies protesting about government policies were poorly attended.
Nationalist issues failed to persuade southerners to take to the streets. Related Articles. March 20, January 30,
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