Romania
During a visit to Mures and Teleorman counties in the
Transylvania region of western Romania on June 5, Romanian
President Emil Constantinescu responded to a document reportedly
circulating among intellectuals in Transylvania that calls for a
federal structure for Romania. The document reportedly asserts
that, as Transylvania is more advanced economically than the rest
of Romania, it could be integrated more rapidly into the European
Union. The document argues for the devolution of Transylvania
and the Banat region, with the establishment of a regional
government and parliament. According to the proposal, Bucharest
would then only deal with foreign policy and defense issues
related to the Transylvania and Banat regions.
In his reaction to the document, Constantinescu said he would
never accept "ideas leading to the sovereignty, unity, or
indivisibility of a Romanian territory." He stressed that his
administration cannot accept "any form of federal governing
system or regional-type legislative administrations, and we do
not accept separatist ideas running counter to the interests of
the Romanian nation." He added, "intellectual adventures of this
kind will cost the people of this country dear." Constantinescu
was echoed three days later by the main party of the governing
coalition, the PNT-CD Christian Democratic National Peasants'
Party. The party's spokesman, Remus Opris, said on June 7 that
the President and the whole country had to "watch so that
constitutional provisions regarding national, sovereign,
independent, unitary, and indivisible state" were not attacked
either from inside or outside of the state. Still, while ruling
out a federated Romania, Constantinescu did accept the
possibility of administrative autonomy for the region, noting
that a juridical framework already exists to support such a move.
While sources claim that 80 percent of the document's signatories
are ethnic Romanians, and the document reportedly stems from the
1998 manifesto "I am fed up with Romania," written by Romanian
separatist Sabin Gherman, any suggestion of Transylvanian
devolution immediately raises the issue of the region's Hungarian
population. Like Serbia's Vojvodina and sections of Slovakia and
Ukraine, Transylvania is home to a large ethnic Hungarian
minority, and has been recently experiencing increased ethnic
tensions.
Anti-Hungarian demonstrations erupted on June 5 and 6 in the
Transylvanian city of Cluj, following a victory by the Romanian
soccer team over the visiting Hungarian team. The mayor of Cluj,
Gheorghe Funar, who is also the head of the nationalist Party of
Alliance for the Romanians' Unity, reportedly rallied the crowds
with extremist anti-Hungarian comments, sparking a demonstration
of several thousand people in front of the Hungarian Consulate in
Cluj. The demonstrators shouted slogans such as "we will defend
Transylvania" and "out with the Hungarians from the country."
Scattered incidents of vandalism by Romanians against Hungarian
properties also reportedly occurred in large Transylvanian
cities.
For their part, Hungarian nationalists are keying off of NATO's
actions on behalf of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and are calling
for a broad revision of borders in the region. On the 79th
anniversary of the signing of the Trianon peace treaty -- which
redrew the map of Central Europe in such way that a large number
of Hungarian nationals remained on Romanian, Slovak, and Serbian
territories -- supporters of the radical Hungarian National front
openly called for a "peaceful revision of the borders and a
Hungarian state of the Carpathian basin." Hungarian political
groups, including six parliamentary parties, also issued a
statement on June 6 backing autonomy for the Serbian region of
Vojvodina. Inside Romania and Slovakia, ethnic Hungarian parties
have been limiting their public activities to political fights
for bilingual government in areas of greater than 20 percent
ethnic minorities, but the independence calls form radicals
within Hungary have not gone unheard.
With the conflict in Yugoslavia apparently leading to NATO-
sanctioned and guaranteed autonomy for ethnic Albanians in
Kosovo, radical nationalists in Eastern Europe seem encouraged to
push their own similar agendas. As countries like Hungary
attempt to settle into Western politico-military structures, and
others like Romania and Slovakia seek admittance into NATO and
the European Union, these cross-border disputes will become ever
more critical. There are a great number of maps of Europe
waiting to be redrawn, and a host of groups eager to start
drawing. With Hungary in NATO and NATO heading into Kosovo, it
is too late to talk about keeping these problems outside Western
Europe. Pandora's box is opening, and unless these problems are
addressed politically and economically, they may, like Kosovo,
express themselves militarily. Constantinescu's willingness to
discuss greater administrative autonomy for Transylvania may be a
first step in the right direction.