Hungarian commentators in Transylvania paint a gloomy picture of the inter-ethnic landscape in Romania, after President Băsescu called Hungary a hotbed of ethnic instability and threatened to ban Fidesz’s annual summer “Free University”. READ MORE
Commentators find Romanian accusations against Hungary out of proportion with the controversial statements made by Hungarian politicians in Transylvania. A left-liberal columnist thinks even far right Jobbik leader Vona should not be denied the right to travel to and speak in Romania. A pro-government columnist, on the other hand, finds Romanian President Traian Băsescu’s attack on Fidesz, a former international ally, a breach of trust that only serves Băsescu’s presidential campaign. READ MORE
Magyar Nemzet acknowledges that Hungarian far-right extremists do proselytise in Transylvania, but dismisses a claim by the Romanian Foreign Ministry that the Hungarian government should dissociate itself from Jobbik leader Vona’s statements. Népszabadság blames PM Orbán for exporting Hungarian party politics to Romania and setting an example for Jobbik’s absurd campaign. READ MORE
A pro-government journalist lists examples of discrimination and arrogance in the record of the left-wing Romanian government and asks how it is possible that such politicians are not rejected by the EU and are even embraced by Hungarian Socialists. READ MORE
A young conservative blogger has noticed that left-wing leaders in neighbouring countries tend to emulate PM Viktor Orbán’s “unorthodox” economic policies. READ MORE
A pro-government journalist calls the Romanian response to Hungary’s innocent symbolic gesture aggressive and unreasonable. A left-wing daily on the other hand accuses the government of insensitivity to the delicate problems of beyond-border Hungarian minorities in Romania. READ MORE
Commentators agree that tensions around the use of national symbols in Transylvania help to divert attention from the harsh restrictive measures being taken by the Romanian government. Some, however, also blame the Hungarian government and the RMDSZ, the main Hungarian party in Transylvania. READ MORE
A Hungarian journalist in Romania criticises the panic of some minority Hungarians after the Hungarian Socialist Party held a meeting in Cluj, and warns them that in a democracy, parties do not hold on to power forever. READ MORE
While right-leaning columnists ridicule the Socialists for their new-found enthusiasm for Hungarian minorities abroad, journalists on the left suggest that Fidesz may have lost hope of gaining all minority Hungarian votes. A Hungarian analyst in Romania warns Hungary’s political élite against patronising attitudes. READ MORE
Heti Válasz warns that the comments of Fidesz MP Zoltán Kőszegi concerning territorial revision are not exactly a laughing matter, even if the government has distanced itself from his “personal opinion”. READ MORE