Transylvania: Managing within a Nation-State

An Interview with Béla Markó

Béla Markó was elected President of RMDSz, the Democratic Federation of the Hungarians of Romania, in 1993, and reelected in 1995. He was born in Kézdivásárhely (Tîrgu Secuesc) in the Székely Country of Transylvania, in 1951, and made his name as a poet and as editor of Látó, a journal published in Marosvásárhely (Tîrgu Mures¸) where he still lives. The interview was first published in the 23 September issue of the Budapest daily Népszabadság.

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This piece of legislation, in all its aspects, was very far from what we would have liked to see. What we had in mind was a decentralized system, with many options and considerable institutional autonomy, including a totally independent Hungarian-language system of instruction which fits into the education system of Romania in a manner guaranteed by the constitution. That the Act provides for additional restrictions within a highly centralized system, restrictions that are a step backwards, even in terms of the recent situation, implies much more than a mere non-acceptance of our ideas. A telling example is that all vocational training in a language other than Romanian is prohibited. Hungarian as the language of instruction in such schools has been legal so far. Up to now, all pupils in Hungarian-language secondary schools have been able to sit for their university entrance examinations in Hungarian. That will stop next year.

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The Hungarian government unavoidably faces the horns of a dilemma. Hungary is moving rapidly towards Europe, and it is therefore in the country's interest to settle things with all her neighbours as quickly as possible. The need to represent the interests of Hungarians outside Hungary, including those of Romania—and to do so in a manner that nobody could describe as half-hearted—is in diametric opposition to this. It is extremely difficult to pursue such a policy in a situation where the other party, perhaps for domestic reasons, has conflicting interests—in a situation where Romanian politicians are not sufficiently motivated to make the huge sacrifices for the sake of this European integration; all the more since, the way I see things, Western Europe would sooner see the speedy conclusion of a Basic Treaty, and through that all problems swept under the carpet, than having them genuinely solved.

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On the 14th of September, following the publication by President Iliescu of the draft of a document outlining a plan of re-conciliation between Romania and Hungary, along with Romanian party leaders, you took part in discussions with the President. What import do you see in that meeting?

We discussed President Iliescu's initiative. The Foreign Ministry had prepared a package of three documents. One is a political declaration, the other the draft of an agreement on cooperation between neighbours, and the third a code of behaviour related to national minorities in both countries. The latter denies more than it asserts, so I am afraid there are formal reasons as well why we cannot accept it. It is not a code of behaviour that we are in need of, but a Basic Treaty convention. It's not that we maintain that this declaration was made for purely tactical reasons. The leadership of the RMDSz is convinced, bearing in mind all that I have said, that it is indeed in the strategic interest of Romania to be present in Europe as a country which cooperates with Hungary as closely as possible. However, I must admit, that I was unpleasantly surprised by two of the parties which took part in the discussions, the Liberal Party of '93 and the Civic Alliance Party. Both are opposition parties but what primarily mattered to them were the chances of such negotiations, given that the government coalition was implacably anti-Hungarian. In other words, even these two parties, which are ready to engage in discussions with us, have not seriously considered what kind of relations between Romanians and Hungarians they want.

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Interviewed by László Hovanyecz