Australian Left Review
Article Title
Letter from Bucharest: Nicolae's Children
Abstract
Above the school doorway, a chiselled inscription in both Hungarian and Romanian, reads 'Secondary School No. 2, founded by Istvan Bathory in 1579'. In the Transylvanian capital Cluj, where Hungarians constitute about a quarter of the population, the school's weathered inscription is now illegal. Since the local elections earlier this year, Romanian ultra-nationalists call the shots in City Hall. The new mayor asserts that even bilingual signs on traditional Hungarian institutions such as schools or the Hungarian National Theatre implicitly undermine Romania's national sovereignty.
This paper has been withdrawn.