Hungary’s ambassador to Bucharest was summoned to the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday following a controversial Facebook post by the president of the Budapest Parliament’s Foreign Policy Commission, Nemet Zholt.

He wrote on Facebook on Monday that the shekel flag would be flown at government offices in Hungary until “Romania allows its free use.”

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly disapproves of the comments of the head of the Foreign Policy Committee of the Parliament of Hungary, published yesterday, February 6, 2023, on his Facebook page regarding Romania’s alleged restriction of the right to fly the flag of the so-called Székel region. (…) In this context, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasizes the fact that the legal order of Romania enshrines the right of persons belonging to all 20 national minorities to use their special symbols both in private and in public within the limits of some specific cultural and religious manifestations. As for the insignia of the so-called Secal land, there is no administrative-territorial unit with that name in Romania, and therefore no right to any specific official insignia,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

According to the cited source, any administrative-territorial authority in Romania has the right to set its own signs, which must be representative of the entire population living in that administrative-territorial unit.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly calls for restraint in public statements and reminds of the expectations of the Romanian side that Hungarian officials will act responsibly in the logic of strategic relations between the two states, the Basic Political Agreement of 1996 and in the pursuit of strengthening bilateral cooperation in all areas of interest for the benefit of to all citizens of Romania and Hungary, regardless of ethnicity,” the press release also states.

Post by Nemet Zholt: