The mayor of Cavnic abandons the idea of Maramureș independence and calls for retaining the county’s name in a possible merger with Cluj

The mayor of the town of Cavnic, Vladimir Petruț, abandoned on Thursday, November 12, the threat regarding organizing a referendum for Maramureș to break away from Romania, which he had made one day earlier. The mayor stated that his reaction was prompted by information appearing in the public domain about a possible administrative-territorial reform that could lead to the abolition of several administrative units and even the county.

On Wednesday, Petruț had claimed that Maramureș would seek independence if the county were abolished, invoking the region’s history and the 1918 Union. Subsequently, the mayor retracted his statements and specified that “Maramureș cannot leave Romania.”

The change in position came after PSD President Sorin Grindeanu distanced himself from a map that had appeared in the public domain, according to which the county would have been divided into 15 units. Petruț said that he did not oppose a possible merger with Cluj or other counties, but requested that the new administrative structure retain the name Maramureș, not Cluj. The mayor stated that information regarding the abolition of 45 of the county’s 75 administrative-territorial units had caused his dissatisfaction.