Romania
Romania is a constitutional republic with a multi-party system and a
directly elected president as chief of state.
In November, presidential and parliamentary elections were held. The presidential
elections resulted in the defeat of Ion Iliescu, president since the overthrow
of the Ceauescu regime, and of his Partidul Democratiei Sociale in Romania
(PDSR, Party of Social Democracy in Romania). In a second round run-off,
Iliescu was beaten by Emil Constantinescu of the centre-right opposition
coalition, the Democratic Convention of Romania (DCR). The DCR formed a
coalition government with the Social Democratic Union, led by former prime
minister Petre Roman, and the Uniunea Democrata Maghiara din Romania (UDMR,
Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania), which thus became the first
Hungarian ethnic formation to join a ruling governmental coalition in Romania's
history.
The parliamentary elections resulted in victory for the DCR, which won 122
seats in the chamber of deputies and 53 seats in the senate.
Although privatization is well under way, government ownership remains dominant
in industry, where about 86 per cent of output is produced by state-owned
enterprises. Following a severe contraction in the period 1989-92, the economy
continued to grow, increasing by 6.9 per cent in 1995 and by 4.5 per cent
in 1996. Inflation, at 62 per cent in 1994, was down to 27.8 per cent in
1995 but was 57 per cent in 1996.
In September, Romania and Hungary signed a Treaty of Understanding, Co-operation
and Good-Neighbourliness. While Hungary renounced any claim to Transylvania,
Romania agreed to guarantee a range of rights for its large ethnic Hungarian
minority.
Antisemitism emerged as a powerful influence in the country's political
life in the third decade of this century, with the establishment of the
Legion of Archangel Saint Michael (also known as the Iron Guard and the
All for the Country Party) by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu in June 1927. On 14
September 1940 General (later Marshal) Ion Antonescu set up, with the help
of the Iron Guard, the National Legionary State. In January 1941, following
an abortive rebellion against Antonescu's rule, the Iron Guard was banned.
A part of the Jewish population was deported to the Transdniester region
during Romania's occupation of this territory after the outbreak of the
Second World War. Many of those deported met their death. There were also
pogroms against the Jews in Romania itself.
After the war several Jews were prominent in the leadership of the Communist
Party of Romania (PCR). Of these, the best known are Ana Pauker and Iosif
Chiinevschi. At no point after the communist takeover, however, was the
PCR's leadership composed of a majority, or even a plurality, of Jews. In
1964 Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej adopted a neo-nationalist policy, which reached
a new peak under Nicolae Ceausescu, who succeeded him as party leader in
March 1965. Although under Ceausescu antisemitism was never officially endorsed,
it was condoned and occasionally appeared in the press and in literary works
by authors closely associated with the presidential couple. Since the fall
of the Ceauescu regime the rights of the Jewish minority have been fully
respected.
The 1.6 million ethnic Hungarians constitute the largest and most vocal
minority. There was no violence associated with ethnic Hungarian issues
in 1996, despite the usual extremist rhetoric from the Partidul Unitatii
Nationale Romane (PUNR, Party of Romanian National Unity) and the signing
of the Romanian-Hungarian treaty, an act that was unpopular with the extremist
parties.
A 1995 law on education deals with the right of the Hungarian ethnic minority
to be educated in their own language. Although the law was considered by
the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) high commissioner
for national minorities to be in line with European and international standards,
it rescinded the rights of Hungarians to take university entrance examinations
in Hungarian for those subjects not taught in Hungarian. It also dictated
that certain vocational schools use only Romanian, which some Hungarians
charge would disadvantage ethnic Hungarians who work in these areas. How-ever,
implementation of the law has been postponed until 1997 and the government
has accepted an OSCE review of the implementation process. Recently, the
new government announced that the law was to be amended to comply with Hungarian
minority demands.
Roma continued to be subjected to discrimination, harassment and violence.
The Roma population, according to the 1991 census, is 1.8 per cent of the
total population, but is believed to be actually much higher-about 7-8 per
cent. The cases of those responsible for the burning of eleven Roma homes
in May 1994 and the beating of Roma and burning of three Roma houses in
January 1995 are still being reviewed by the courts.
Corneliu Vadim Tudor, the antisemitic chairman of the Partidul România
Mare (PRM, Greater Romania Party), gained 4.7 per cent of the vote in the
first round of the presidential election in November (see GENERAL BACKGROUND).
The PRM won 4.5 per cent in the elections for the chamber of deputies and
4.5 per cent in the elections for the senate. This marked an increase over
the elections of 1992, when it obtained 3.9 per cent of the vote for the
former chamber and 3.9 per cent of the vote for the latter. Its representation
in the chamber thus rose from sixteen to nineteen deputies, and in the senate
from six to eight.
Nonetheless, overall the representation in parliament of the extremist parties
dropped from 1992 to 1996. This was due to two factors. First, the left-nationalist
Partidul Socialist al Muncii (PSM, Socialist Labour Party), which counts
among its leaders (as first vice chairman) Adrian Paunescu like Tudor, a
former Ceausescu court poet and an antisemite, but of a more sophisticated
kind failed to pass the 3 per cent electoral hurdle and is not represented
in the present legislature. In 1992 the PSM had thirteen deputies and five
senators. The second reason for the drop in extremist representation lies
in the sharp decrease suffered in the ballot by the PUNR, which had thirty
deputies and fourteen senators in 1992, but in 1996 was represented by only
eighteen deputies and seven senators. While in 1992 the PUNR (led by Gheorghe
Funar, the controversial mayor of Cluj, who lost the chairmanship in the
wake of the electoral failure of 1996) had obtained 7.7 per cent of the
vote for the chamber of deputies, its share for the chamber dropped to 4.4
per cent in 1996. Likewise, only 4.2 per cent supported the PUNR for the
senate in 1996, compared with 8.1 per cent in 1992.
In the run-up to the presidential and parliamentary elections, the ultra-nationalist PRM and PUNR, and Iliescu's then ruling PDSR, blamed the collapse of the Romanian economy over the previous few years on individuals "alien to the country's roots"-an allusion to Petre Roman, the prime minister during 1990-1, who is partly of Jewish descent (see MANIFESTATIONS) and to political advisers and pundits such as Silviu Brucan, also a Jew. They were accused of giving incorrect advice during the 1989 revolution and afterwards.
According to the Prague-based Open Media Research Institute, on 16 October
the daily newspaper Cronica Româna reported that antisemitic
leaflets targeting Social Democratic Union presidential candidate Petre
Roman were discovered at the party's headquarters in Timi county. Earlier,
graffiti urging voters not to vote for a "first non-Romanian president"
were reported from Brasov. Roman was also obliquely attacked by the director
of the electoral campaign of the ruling PDSR, Ovidiu incai, who accused
the candidate's father, Valter Roman, of having intended to set up an independent
state in Transylvania. This is in line with allegations that Roman represents
"Judeo-communism".
During the year, offensive and, in some cases, threatening letters were
placed in the mail boxes of a number of distinguished Jewish intellectuals,
such as B. Elvin, a noted literary critic, and the composer Alexandru Mandy,
a man in his eighties.
In September, during the election campaign, the leading opposition daily
newspapers România Libera and Ziua attacked the US ambassador,
Alfred Moses, who is Jewish, accusing him of supporting the PDSR in exchange
for legislation providing for restitution of Jewish property confiscated
by Romania's fascist and communist regimes. The papers cited as proof of
their allegation Moses's role in the withdrawal from Romania of the Washington-based
International Republican Institute. The Institute, funded by the US government,
had advised opposition forces on how to loosen the PDSR's electoral grip
and had provided logistical support.
The two principal mouthpieces of the PRM, the xenophobic and antisemitic
weekly papers România mare and Politica , remained in
existence. At the end of 1995 România mare had a print-run
of 62,000 and Politica of over 20,000. A third publication, Europa
, also openly supported Tudor's presidential bid. All three continued
to publish xenophobic and antisemitic propaganda.
The press and television often give extensive coverage-at times neutral,
but often favourable-to various neo-Legionary manifestations, such as: commemorations
of the movement's founder, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (see HISTORICAL LEGACY);
marches staged by some neo-Legionary groups; and camps of ideological indoctrination
and paramilitary fitness, aimed at training Legionary youths for when "their
time" comes. Newspapers often eulogize Romania's wartime dictator,
Marshal Antonescu, who has been turned into a symbolic figure. This is not
the case, however, with the weeklies Dilema and 22, two remarkable
exceptions to the mainstream, which adopt an uncompromising approach to
Romanian history and its leading figures. The Legionary revival in Romania
should be seen against the backdrop of the recent far-right resurgence elsewhere.
In 1995, the chief of the Romanian intelligence service warned in an annual
report, which included projections for 1996 (publication of the report for
1996 is delayed), that an extremist lobby operating in many countries was
channeling considerable funds to the new Legionary movement.
One private television channel, whose audience is small, is effectively
funded by Iosif Constantin Dragan, a former Legionary turned business tycoon.
It broadcasts almost daily reminders of the Legionary movement's "martyrs",
creed and anthems.
Gordian, Majadahonda and other publishing houses continue to put out Legionary
works.
The most significant novelty of 1996 is that while antisemitic manifestations
continued, they were followed by prompt reactions that sternly denounced
any sign of antisemitic, neo-Legionary resurgence-not only in the press,
but also at public meetings, including commemorations of the victims of
the National Legionary State or Marshal Antonescu's wartime regime, and
even at cultural events. At the same time, Realitatea Evreiasca ,
the bi-weekly publication of the Federation of Jewish Communities, launched
a survey on "Xenophobia at the Dawn of the Third Millennium",
which gathered responses from both Jewish and leading non-Jewish personalities.
Against this background, the Romanian Jewish community has initiated an
effort to counter antisemitism by an intense promotion-through books, newspapers
and public meetings-of the contribution of Jews to Romanian society.
In 1996, Ha-Sefer, the publishing house of the Federation of Jewish Communities,
published a score of volumes presenting Jewish achievements in sundry fields
and revealing the historically good relations between Romanians and Jews.
Throughout 1996 Realitatea Evreiasca supported the drive towards
improved mutual understanding and an inter-ethnic rapprochement ,
enlisting for this purpose the support of noted Jewish writers, scientists
and artists.
A presidential adviser attended a meeting marking the fortieth anniversary
of Realitatea Evreiasca" . The secretary-general of the Partidul
Naional Taranesc-Crestin si Democrat (PNÞ-CD, National Peasant Party-Christian
Democrats) made a laudatory speech at a "Righteous of the People's"
award at the Israeli embassy in Bucharest. Finally, the president himself,
accompanied by leaders of the ruling coalition parties, attended a performance
of The Emperor of Atlantis , by Victor Ullman, a Czech Jewish composer
killed at Auschwitz. Most significant of all, many outstanding figures of
the Romanian intelligentsia, such as Andrei Plesu, Razvan Theodorescu, Cristian
Popisteanu, Constantin Visinescu and Radu Beligan, have joined forces with
the Jewish community in fighting xenophobia.
Compared with recent years, there appeared to be little change in the
extent and characteristics of antisemitism in Romania, and it remained a
minor problem. Relations between the Jewish minority and the authorities
generally remained good, although, exceptionally, the outgoing president,
Ion Iliescu, resorted to Judeophobia in the presidential campaign. A highly
vocal ultra-nationalist, xenophobic and antisemitic element remained on
the fringe of political life.
© JPR 1997