The Hungarians In Transylvania Also Want Autonomy-VALENTIN BUSUIOC
Ardeal isn't spared from its own separatism current. Starting with January 2013, over 10 thousand people (Hungarians, Romanians and Saxons) have signed a petition for the autonomy of Transylvania. Fancsali Ernő, the initiator of the petition, said: "We have filed the petition for the autonomy of Transylvania with the Prefecture of Cluj, for which 13,300 signatures have been raised starting with January 2013, from Hungarians, as well as from Romanians or Saxons, of whom many have left the country after 1989. We are waiting for an answer in the near future concerning this petition. We are not waiting for an answer from the Government right now, because we know that the Ponta 3 government, even though it has included the UDMR, will not give us a fair response. We won't stop until we reach our goal: Transylvania's autonomy and a Federal Romania in a strong Central Europe. I want the autonomy because in 1918, when the Union was made, the people of Ardeal were expecting something better after the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, but the centralism from Budapest was the same as the one in Bucharest, and the Romanians from beyond the Carpathians lost their compass and treated Transylvania like a colony". The petition is demanding the autonomy of Transylvania, Banat, Crişana and Maramureş. The city of Cluj-Napoca would be forced to become the capital of the area, where the government of the region would work, which would have political and economic control of the autonomous Transylvania. The initiators claim that after 1989, the state of the region has not improved, as the taxes collected in Ardeal "reach Moldova and Oltenia unfairly".