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Gheorghe Funar is a Romanian politician, who rose to fame as mayor of the Transylvania city of Cluj-Napoca between 1992 and 2004.
He became well-known for his extreme nationalist stance in favor of ethnic Romanians in Cluj-Napoca, which is a multi-ethnic city with a large ethnic Hungarian population and a substantial representation from other ethnic groups, including Roma. Transylvania was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire prior to World War I; the transfer of the region to Romania in 1919 was perceived as a significant loss by many Hungarians, who viewed it as an integral part of Hungary despite the fact that a majority of the Transylvanian countryside was ethnic Romanian.
Funar was a candidate for presidency from PUNR ("The Romanian National Unity Party") in 1992 and 1996. In 1997, after he was expelled from PUNR, he joined Greater Romania Party. Funar lost the Cluj-Napoca mayoral elections in the first round in 2004. Emil Boc of the Justice and Truth Alliance won the elections during the second round run-off elections against Social Democratic Party (PSD) candidate Ion Rus.
Funar is currently the General Secretary of the Greater Romania Party and is a Member of Parliament. Among his proposals in the national government is the distribution of Romanian-language Bibles to all citizens, and the raising of a statue of Mihai Eminescu in every communa (administrative community of neighbouring villages).
Mayorship of Cluj
While many claim that they voted for him only due to his economic policies, Funar's views demonstrated that tensions over Transylvania's ethnic indentity continued after the end of Communism in Romania in 1989 and more than seventy years after Transylvania became a part of Romania. His views were often manifested in public policy. Among many other measures and, and seen by many as an affront to the ethnic Hungarian community, Funar required the municipality to paint many public items -- including park benches, pavements and even garbage bins -- in the colors of the Romanian flag (blue, yellow and red). At Christmas time, the municipality was allowed to use only red, yellow and blue Christmas lights.
In 1993, the "Piaţa Libertăţii" (Liberty Square) was renamed "Piaţa Unirii" (Unification Square), to imply the unification of Transylvania and Romania. He changed the label of the statue of Matthias Corvinus from "Matthias Rex Hungarorum" (Matthias King of Hungarians) to just "Matthias Rex". In September 1996, when Romania signed a friendship treaty with Hungary, Funar organized a funeral ceremony on the streets of Cluj-Napoca. In 1997, he hung a banner in front of the Hungarian Consulate in Cluj saying "This is the seat of the Hungarian spies in Romania". Some of Funar's changes were reversed until the mayorship of his successor, Emil Boc.
References
- Thorpe, Nick (2002). . BBC News. Retrieved March 5, 2006.
External links
- Cluj Napoca's scenes of anti-Hungarian sentiment, an August 2005 photoessay by Christopher Culver showing the legacy of Funar's mayorship.