Jobbik Leader To Be Declared Persona Non Grata In Romania? – Update – Jobbik Open Letter

(MTI) – An official procedure to declare radical nationalist Jobbik leader Gabor Vona persona non grata in Romania could start as soon as on Wednesday, once President Traian Basescu approves a Romanian interior ministry proposal, Romania’s Prime Minster Victor Ponta said.

Ponta said after a cabinet meeting that the ministry had prepared the necessary documents on Tuesday.

Basescu requested the Romanian government and parliament on Tuesday to ban Jobbik officials and party members from entering Romania after a protest for Szekler autonomy in Targu Mures on the day before.

Romanian media reports highlighted the rowdy behavior of “Hungarian extremist groups” at the Day of Szekler Freedom events. According to the reports, Vona and several representatives of the far-right Sixty-Four Counties Youth Movement and “the Hungarian Guard which is banned in Hungary” were present and the latter was responsible for clashes with the gendarmerie.

In reply to Basescu, Ponta on Wednesday said that Romania cannot prevent members of a particular party who are EU citizens from entering Romania, but it can ban a particular person.

Jobbik said Basescu’s campaign to drive out Vona was an effort to deter attention away from the demonstration’s goal and from the community’s struggle for autonomy. Istvan Szavay, a Jobbik spokesman, told MTI that it was “outrageous” that the only message the Romanian political leadership had expressed about the Day of Szekler Freedom was the ban on Vona.

Vona and Szavay both participated at the demonstration on Monday.

Open letter to Romanian President Traian Basescu and Prime Minister Victor Ponta

Your Excellencies, Mr. President and Mr. Prime Minister,

You raised the issue of banning me from the territory of Romania again. You argued that the events taking place in Marosvásárhely during the Szekler Liberty Day on March 10 would justify your suggestion. You say that my extremist conduct would justify your measures. I stand utterly confounded by your statement. What have I done that would have violated any law? What I did was that I quietly and solemnly demonstrated in Marosvásárhely. If you ban me for this, what will you do to the thousands of people participating in the event? Will you ban the participating Belgian, Catalan and Basque leaders from the country as well? Because what they did was more than just walking silently as I did, they delivered magnificent and arousing speeches as well.

We have two potential explanations here. You were either misinformed, or you play a lowly and anti-Hungarian political game. Allow me to help you to clearly see what exactly happened in Marosvásárhely.

Thousands of people, including myself, attended the demonstration. The event was solemn and peaceful. At the end, there was a little shuffling between a handful of demonstrators and the police, the news of which was then widely reported and covered in Romanian media. The reports claimed that Jobbik and the Hungarian Guard were responsible for the incident. This is but a bald-faced lie. All members of Jobbik and the Hungarian Guard, including myself, walked in the street peacefully and without political party banners, as requested by the organizers. The above was confirmed by Corneliu Grosu, the county prefect himself(!). He stated that we had nothing to do with the incident. That’s all that happened. Is this why you want to ban me from the country? Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, don’t be absurd! I understand that votes are important, I am a party leader myself, but one should not sink below a certain level.