UDMR, other two Magyar parties, sign joint statement on territorial, local and cultural autonomy, claim Constitution should be amended

The leaders of the three parties representing the Hungarian community in Romania, UDMR, PCM and PPMT have signed a joint statement in Cluj on Monday, calling for territorial, local and cultural autonomy. UDMR chairman, Kelemen Hunor, said that “there is a need to amend the Constitution,” given that the fundamental law does not allow territorial autonomy, hotnews.ro informs.

UDMR chairman Kelemen Hunor said in a joint press conference with the leaders of the two other parties, Biro Zsolt (Hungarian Civic Party – PCM) and Szilagyi Zsolt (Hungarian People’s Party of Transylvania – PPMT), that there are three kinds of autonomy which they claim – territorial, local and cultural, which he would like to discuss with the Romanian majority, in this year of the Centenary of the Great Union, and have it legalized.

“There is a need for an amendment to the Constitution. The Constitution, at this moment, recognizes no other form of territorial organization than the county, the communes, the municipalities and the cities, not the regions and other forms. From this viewpoint, there is a need to amend the Constitution, as we proposed in 2013,” the UDMR chairman said.

“Together with the Romanian majority and through the dialogue we can find those solutions, those legislative, administrative ways by which the desiderata of the Hungarian community in Transylvania, in Romania, can be met. We speak of three types of autonomy: regional or territorial autonomy, as it is said (…), local autonomy for those communities living in interethnic conditions and cultural autonomy primarily for the Diaspora, but it is also true for the other communities, including the Szeklers. These three forms of autonomy are needed at one time, we say as soon as possible, if possible in 2018, after being discussed with the Romanian majority and legally solved,” Kelemen Hunor said.

Hunor added that for the cultural autonomy there is a draft law submitted to parliament, but for the other two types, amendments to the Constitution are needed.