Hungarian high school in central Romania gets Parliament commission approval

The Education Commission of the Chamber of Deputies approved a project on the establishment of a Hungarian-language theological high school in Târgu Mureș, in north-central Romania’s Mureș county, News.ro reported. The project was submitted by the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), which argues the high school fills “an essential need.” The high school would be set in a section of the city’s Unirea National College. “At this point, it is the only solution respecting the students’ constitutional right to education and to a functional school in Târgu Mureș,” Szabó Ödön, an UDMR deputy, said. At the beginning of this month, the Senate passed a draft law stipulating that education units where the teaching language is that of a national minority can be established by both the Parliament and the local and county authorities. The project of the Târgu Mureș high school passed with 18 votes in favor and one abstention. The deputies of the Popular Movement Party (PMP) and of the National Liberal Party (PNL) left the room and did not vote. The PMP and PNL argue that the procedure to establish the high school is illegal and the establishment discriminates Romanian students. Robert Turcescu, a PMP deputy, said there was no urgency to have the high school established through a legislative procedure and claimed UDMR was making a “political barter.” “We are in the middle of the school year, there is no emergency. We have projects waiting since 2011. We understand the wishes of the UDMR, and probably such a high school is needed but not under these conditions. […] What are you doing here today is extremely dangerous,” Turcescu said, quoted by News.ro. Marius Paşcan, another PMP deputy, argued the project is not justified since there are not enough Hungarian students to justify all the classrooms allotted for them at present. He also recalled a previous case, when Romanian students were forcefully evacuated from a high school. Another Hungarian high school in Târgu Mureș was at the center of a dispute between Romania and Hungary this September. The Hungarian Government said it would withdraw its support for Romania’s admission to various international organizations, including the OECD, claiming that the Romanian authorities had decided to suspend the classes of the Roman Catholic Theological High School in Targu Mures, in central Romania. It later decided to support Romania, after the country took steps “directed towards a dialogue of substance with the member states and structures of the organization,” according to a statement of the Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE).