A lawyer has filed a complaint against former premier Mihai Tudose to the Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday, asking prosecutors to probe if Tudose’ recent statements on the Szekler flag might represent crimes of public incitement or incitement to hatred or discrimination.
A week ago former PM Tudose told Realitatea TV private broadcaster that “there cannot be any” autonomy of the Szeklers Land, and warned that “if the Szekler flag waves on the institutions there, everyone will hang next to the flag.”
“It’s completely unacceptable that, in a democratic state, where the human rights represent a supreme value, in a state where the Constitution guarantees equal rights and bans discrimination on ethnic grounds, the prime-minister could publicly state that members of an ethnic minority in Romania will wave near the flag, meaning they will be hanged, after he had previously declared himself in favor of the death penalty,” reads the complaint submitted by lawyer Liviu Popescu.
In the document, the lawyer also says that the language the former PM used in the statements made on January 10 is <fascist> aimed against the physical termination of the members of an ethnic group.
“The perp, like a Nazi, is threatening the members of an ethnic minority with hanging, and if he is not sanctioned, he can “evolve” to other types of minorities and to his political foes. Such statements are by no means protected by the freedom of speech and they cannot either be considered a virile proof of patriotism,” the denunciation also says.
Ex-PM Tudose’s statements have stirred a real diplomatic row between Romania and Hungary.