The political declaration of Senator Adrian Păunescu
at the Plenary session of the Senate on 22 October 2007
I take this microphone with the negative energy forced into me by my colleague Markó Béla. It is a long time since I once felt the need to fight for mother and son to be reunited. For a long time I have not felt the need to practice what I did well in my youth, namely playing football, applying one kick exactly in the softest place, so that the chair would yield up one of its four legs to penetrate the weakest part. For a long time I have never felt so indignant with and so irked by any vileness at international level, as the one the President of the Democratic Union of the Magyars in Romania (UDMR), our colleague, Senator Markó Béla, has committed. Just saying ‘Shame on you!’ is not enough. This conspiracy against the existing national unity of our country has now gone on for the nearly 20 years.
And this conspiracy existed even before that. Years ago, I used to go on stage at the stadium in Arad with the literary circle, ‘The Flame’, and during the show, in a special area, I saw a very strange mixture of colours; red, white and green. I thought to myself, Italy has a white, red and green flag, but in the west do we border Italy? Do we? What could this mean I wondered? What were these provocations? On the other hand, it is a long time since I agreed so much with what the Social Democratic Party (PSD) had to say. We are almost in harmony. I am still a member of this Party, but there have always been nuances. I have always demanded answers. I excuse myself as an intellectual, a creator, with life passing by, who can no longer swallow, without chewing everything that I am told and questioning the one who is telling me. But now, from my office upstairs, when I heard our colleague Dan Mircea Popescu in the hall downstairs, reading out the official position of the PSD, I felt again the moment when I was first keen to join.
His voice reminds me of ‘he’ who heralded the Second World War. Levitan was the name of the great herald who just had to say: ‘Gavariat Levitan’, and important events were announced. The voice of my friend and colleague, Dan Mircea Popescu, was so similar to that of Levitan, that it made me shiver. He spoke of some essential truths of the Social Democrat Party.
Who does not want to the Constitution of Romania; they should observe their own mother's! One cannot create a problem where it does not exist. Years and years have passed since we had to bear this insult continuously.
There have been people who have spoken about it over time. Three of them are your colleagues: Vadim, Funar, and myself, Păunescu. We had the finger pointed at us. We were singled out as extremists, and even though now you can all see that what we foresaw it has happened, continues to happen, and will go on happening, we remain labeled men.
One of the weaknesses of the Romanian political society is that one attributes to some political parties a glorious yet negative, reputation. For instance, the Great Romania Party, (PRM), is one I acknowledge with respect, yet as a matter of conscience, do not wish to join. Due to PMR’s negative, yet glorious reputation that it is an extremist Party, people declare that it is impossible to work with them, and that it is a Party which can never lead the country. It really is a weakness of the Romanian government that some brave people, who did their duty by alerting us in good time to what might happen, were cast aside by corrupt politicians and a compliant press so that they finished up by being marked for all time.
How can those who gave the warning that certain powers were trying to undermine the unity of the country by what could be considered extremist means, be vilified, when it is affirmed by others that there really are powers which Transylvania to break away from Romania? How is one to view Senator Markó’s declaration that he longs for his ‘lost fatherland’? What fatherland is that? If he longs for his fatherland, let him go there, or as near as he can. And what does he mean by declaring that ‘He is going to fight’? Are there enemies within the Hungarian minority?
Here are the statements of the leader of the UDMR, and yet it is us who are considered the extremists, us who have heard him declare the following which has been recorded in the anals: ‘The fatherland lost in 1918, the houses, the woods, the land, the flag (standard)… In 1526, our ancestors have lost…{he probably speaks about the defeat at Mohaci}…for a century and a half the country was no longer ours’.
What kind of comment is this? Where does he think he is, this political rascal? How long are we going to tolerate such a situation? It is easy to blame the Liberal Government for the guilt of the leader of the UDMR, but the UDMR stood alongside the Socialist Democratic Party (PSD) and to all other forces which governed Romania: the Democratic Party (PD), and the Conservative Party (PC). Why did the UDMR find a place in each Government? I’ll tell you why. It is because generally speaking we are weak and because the Romanian State has become assort of fiction. What has happened to our laws? Can people do just what they like in Romania?
If Markó Béla were to cross a street while the Pedestrian light was red, he would most likely be hit by a car. If Markó Béla crosses the Constitution on a red light, is there no law or any regulation to inhibit him, for he continues to do just what he likes?
Probably Markó Béla is dispirited, for as a bidder in this miserable auction of the anti- Romanian spirit, he is being outbid by other forces with ideas even more radical than his own. More radical? Is that possible? It sounds like a declaration of war. We should look at a map for the country whose patriots made such pronouncements that they say correspond to an ancient historical legend. We have to respond to this declaration so that the country should not wait in vain.
What does these mean? Mr. Markó Béla tells us that he is going for fight three or even thirty years, or something like that in order to find his lost country once again. With whom is he going to fight? Probably us, who else but us? Well, let him come and fight, fight openly and tell us by what right within the European Court of Human Rights can he break up a country. This explains his interest. This explains their interest in singing the praises of an independent Kosovo. Not because their heart goes out to the Albanian people - with whom WE are actually more related - but because they want to set a precedent in Europe with a country not far from us.
This matter cannot be treated as a simple discussion among academics. This matter could become a checkmate for the peace of Romania. To be sure these provocateurs will not take any action. Yet, there is something important that they most certainly will do, namely: they will create trouble in Transylvania. They will seed aggression between normal people, between Romanian and Hungarian, between people who live together with the Romanians in Transylvania. They will again set a match to light prejudice and conflict. They will try to amplify all the discriminations the leaders of those Parties would like to see take place in the fight for the right to deprive the Romanian population and throw them out in a storm of unrest.
The Romanian state must become more realistic and start playing its part. We don’t speak here about subjective matters that concern a few of us. This is about the great national subjectivity which has become an objective situation in Europe: the very existence of Romania. Mister Markó may say such things inside his apartment, but he should not do so before an international audience. He should not urge the black forces against Romania. He should be ashamed to the end of his days, he and all his supporters. And shame on us if we do not act in conformity with the Constitution, with the laws of our country and with a United Europe. Could any one of you go to another part of the continent and declare about their country what Markó Bélla is saying about ours? About Romania? How is it that he has the impudence to say such things, and how is it that the Prime Minister, Tariceanu, remains aloof and uninvolved. How can one explain the passivity of President Basescu? Are we so unfortunate? Have we achieved nothing? History passes us by laden with wretchedness. Here is what Senator Frunda has to say: ‘When you are voting, remember that the UDMR will ask Europe to approve the autonomy of Szeklers’ territory’.
So has the story of the ‘Painted sign on the road for Tourists’ past it’s ‘sell by’ date? As they say, what does it matter if they placed a sign there? Could they not find another place to put it or even hide it forever? In conformity with the new regulation which does not forbid the use of all parts of the body for personal pleasures, they might include there that particular sign, because it is not the question of a road sign, they maintain. Did they set the sign there to indicate the road to the locals? If so, then why? Are the passers-by blind, or don’t see very well? They can set their painted road panel wherever they want, but not on Romanian territory. And again, the authorities should act accordingly. You cannot do what you like in this country. Here is what Frunda said: “…right now the Hungarians from Romania sit on a chair with only three legs. We have representation among the local authorities in the Parliament and in the European Council. We miss a representation in Brussels, so we can sit on a more stable chair”. I remember a story: a peasant from Oltenia was asked why was using a three legged chair. He answered: “because a fourth would worry me. It might just penetrate a certain place and then I wouldn’t be able to stand to introduce anything”.
Markó and Frunda want four legged chairs so that they can also have representation in Europe so that they might aim at the Romanian State from there. But what kind of a country is this which would allow them to go so far and achieve what they, the minority, want now, really, are there no regulations? Are we a country at the beginning of its life? Well, that is more or less true. I also remind you something else, that old theory about the cultural autonomy which we discussed here. I am proud to say, that I was the first Member of Parliament to attack it, the first Romanian Senator who rejected it and who exposed all this theory as a blatant lie. It is not a question of cultural autonomy they just use a pseudonym. They have acquired this pseudonym in order to obtain a certain right: to take decisions upon themselves in those places where Hungarians are in a majority, instead of allowing the Government or the elected local authorities to do so. They are after a separate country. It is obvious that their use of the word ‘autonomy’ means “the lost fatherland”. They long for the “lost fatherland”?! This is the truth. They do not see Romania as their fatherland. I repeat, justice should be given to those who warned us beforehand about this state of events.
Now I will refer briefly to the ‘new settlement’ launched by Mr. Markó Béla, in an imprudent stylistic manner. When he speaks about a ‘new settlement’, using the word ‘dismounting’ as if he were an ancient chronicler, I should like to ask him where exactly they were coming from on horseback? Did they come from Europe? And if he talks about a new ‘dismounting’, I will tell him and all those who think like him, with their views against Romania and against the European unity, to climb back on their horses and leave. But I advise them to make sure they have saddled them well and taken sandwiches with them. Mount and set off to wherever they think their Fatherland lies. Not long ago I indulged in the illusion that all this was no more than a political game and that his fatherland and their fatherland is here. One of the greatest Hungarian writers and pressmen from Romania, Hajdu Gyoso, a man who has been fighting for 17 – 18 years to show us the real face of these extremists, himself victimized by those infamous people, warned us after Markó Béla, at Tusnad, had demanded something very simple; to have “Transylvania back”. It is also true that at a certain moment Béla also said; “Go back Transylvanian”, meaning that people from Wallachia, Moldavia, and Dobruja should not be allowed in Transylvania. But “Transylvania back” is the slogan of Horthy Miklós, and we pretend we don’t see! Markó is a Horthyst! And we go on, because we need formal majorities and we can’t accuse some people of what we all did. All with the exception of those who were marked out as extremists, for having foretold of this danger. And this danger does really exist. And Transylvania cannot be treated as a ‘dame de companie’ of various political structures with diverse barbarian appetites. I recommend that you read the courageous, honest, and well documented things written by Hajdu Győző over the years in my magazine, ‘Flame’. He also published a book about Europe. Then you
will see how these problems have been treated during those seventeen years and perhaps you will then realize reluctantly, how late we are in reacting.
At the end Adrian Paunescu read his poem, written in 1990, ‘We can’t live without Transylvania’.
