Premium
National leader of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) Kelemen Hunor says that had the Hungarians and Roma not been patient in Romania things might have been completely different and he urges the Roma to assume their identity, language, ethnicity, culture so that no one will avoid them.
"Had the Hungarians and Roma not been patient in Romania, things might have been completely different. (...) We have stood in solidarity together at all times - whether it was communism or the last 33 years. I want to thank you for your solidarity in 1990 at Targu Mures. We will never forget. (...) You have always proved how strong you are, how involved you are. You are a real force because you are engaged in social life, in economic life, in cultural life and in political life in Romania. We will not argue about numbers. I think that you are far more than the number of Hungarians in Romania, you are in the first place, but you have to want it and you have to show that you are a powerful force. You have to get organised and if you organise your communities, the Roma Party will be more effective. You are extremely pragmatic, but you will also get results. Just figure this: 10% Roma Party in the Romanian Parliament, 7% new with redistribution, of course. That means 17%. The minority group still about 6%," Kelemen told a convention on Sunday of the Congress of Representatives of Roma Communities in Romania.
He added that UDMR was in power for about 15 years "with ups and downs", but had it stayed for 33 years, "Romania would have looked different."
Kelemen urged the Roma to embrace their identity.
"You have to embrace your identity, language, ethnicity, culture and then you will really be an extremely powerful force. No one will avoid you. Should I not live in Romania, should I not be a Romanian citizen, I would only take the polls of opinion and sociological research and I would see that there are two permanently discriminated communities in Romania - your community and my community. That is the truth. The reasons are different, but the effect, the results of negative discrimination are about the same. A stigmatised person or community means that it is discriminated against, means that the dissatisfaction of the majority, very often, turns against these communities. We cannot accept something like that; something like that cannot be accepted. The distrust of the majority should not be directed towards the Roma, towards the Hungarians. We are loyal citizens, we pay taxes, we work and we have contributed to the development of Romania."
