Zoltán Tarr Came Down to Tinder-garden and Swiped Left on the Good Ones

Zoltán Tarr came back to Transylvania for a dialogue, but what he delivered in the end was just a monologue — the “dia-” part got lost along the way. That's what happens to those who play political Tinder. Still, let's look at the bright side: the minister who is also responsible for Hungarians beyond the border did not, this time, apologize to the perpetrators, on behalf of the perpetrators, for something neither he nor his party was guilty of. A giant leap for mankind…

The oft-repeated narrative of the Transylvanian press close to Tisza was that Zoltán Tarr does not negotiate with politicians, but wants to talk to civil organizations, independents among them, so that his ministry could get a sense of what's going on around here. The plan worked out brilliantly: there was no dialogue, he met neither real independents nor real civil activists, but he did have a lovely dinner with politicians. And here on the provincial fringes we also know that a dinner spent with a politician is an excellent occasion for making big decisions — everything else is mere formality, paperwork, naming the child.

Zoltán Tarr started out in Oradea (Nagyvárad), the city that Péter Magyar visited back when he was still an opposition leader, and where we hoped he would show up and put an end to the arrogant, condescending marketplace run by the RMDSZ, which reduces Transylvanian Hungarians to mere voting machines and then puts them up for sale. That didn't happen. Oradea is also a strong signal in another sense: Tarr repeatedly pissed on those who believed in the hope of independent meetings, and also flipped off his own prime minister. After his election, Péter Magyar received the “boss of the Transylvanians” and impressed upon him that he should stand up for Abbot Rudolf Anzelm Fejes of Oradea, who has been persecuted. Zoltán Tarr, however, came here a full six months later, met with the traitorous Bishop Böcskei, dined with the oppressors Attila Cseke and Ödön Szabó, and then moved on. As for Abbot Anzelm, he can sort it out however he can. Along with him, the Hungarians of Oradea also got their own little warning: it doesn't matter how much you jump around against the RMDSZ here, what matters is who dines with whom. And Tarr chose from that particular menu.

Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár) was another odd stop on this journey that was going nowhere. Here too he happened, as if by chance, to run into Hunor Kelemen over a shared meal, and together with the people from Oradea, we might as well say that Tarr essentially got to talk privately, behind closed doors, with every big shot in Transylvania. Árpád Antal and Sándor Tamás are still to come, but what's delayed isn't abandoned. At the public meet-and-greet held at the strongly RMDSZ-affiliated Planetarium, he then talked for quite a long time, and a few people from the audience got to ask questions too, toward the end, so that everyone could go to sleep afterward. Then, on top of Mount Harghita, our dear minister rewrote the semantic dictionary, where he came out with the statement that we are not children of the Hungarian state, to whom Budapest hands out pocket money, but siblings. Siblings, indeed. So what are we supposed to do with the term “motherland” from now on? Or, if we're going to be siblings from here on, why does he get to decide that all by himself? What's it going to be, Minister, what's it going to be?

We will return to Zoltán Tarr's visit and its various ramifications, but for now I would just highlight that Budapest does not support, does not set up, and so on, any party opposed to or outside the RMDSZ. Good to know, and good that the minister knows it too: this is a pardon letter for the RMDSZ, they have nothing to worry about, and they couldn't care less about the rest. In any case, it's telling that Krónika also found this to be the most important point — so much so that it used it to fire up its readers right in the headline:

Zoltán Tarr disappointed those in Cluj-Napoca who hoped to bring about change within the RMDSZ with Tisza's help.

Well, yes, with Zoltán Tarr's second coming, Krónika proved that the reports claiming RMDSZ senator Lóránd Turos had pocketed them were true. The deal was struck right under Tarr's nose, during his very first visit, while he was still shaking hands in Albești (Fehéregyháza) at the inauguration of a memorial house that, according to the Gáspárik report published on Transtelex — which I give some credence to — still hasn't opened since.
So, Zoltán Tarr came down to Transylvania to Tinder around, swiped left on the good ones, gave the big shots a friendly nudge, went home, and we were left here screwed. Isn't that just beautiful?

Spoiler alert: no, it isn't!

Ugar