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". Many of Funar's changes were reversed under the mayorship of his successor, Emil Boc. Between 1992 and 1993, Funar supported a large-scale Ponzi scheme run by Caritas, a company based in Cluj-Napoca. Funar helped Caritas build its credibility by renting space for it in the town hall, appearing with its owner in public and on television, and defending the company from attacks. Funar also gave Caritas space in the local newspaper to list winners' names (amounting to 44 pages in 1993) and lent the owner space at the local stadium to run his operations. Recently, Funar extended his xenophobic views to the Jewish minority, making unfounded statements: "The World's Jewish Government wants to move Israel into Romanian borders and is trying to exterminate Romanian people by using food additives" or "There are already more than 2 million Jews in Romania working for its destruction". He also claims that theory of relativity was developed by the Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu and it was stolen by Einstein (described by Funar as a "retarded individual"). Electoral history Presidential elections See also List of mayors of Cluj-Napoca Notes References Nick Thorpe, Hungarians unwanted in Romania census, BBC News, 2002. Retrieved March 5, 2006. External links BBC News – Mayor paints town red - and yellow and blue BBC World Service – Letters from Budapest: Nick Thorpe on the right to say 'yes' – about a marrying couple getting in trouble by saying "yes" to each other in their own language (Cluj, 2002). 1949 births Living people People from Sânnicolau Mare Greater Romania Party politicians Romanian National Unity Party politicians Leaders of political parties in Romania Mayors of Cluj-Napoca Candidates for President of Romania Anti-Hungarian sentiment in Romania Romanian nationalists