political organisations of Hungarian minorities
The political organisations of Hungarian minorities are the most important political advocacy organisations in the 100-year history of minority Hungarian communities. The National Christian Socialist Party and the Hungarian National Party were active in Czechoslovakia between the two world wars. These two parties merged in 1936 to form the United Hungarian Party. These parties were able to reach about 60% of Hungarian voters. About 20-25% of Hungarians in Czechoslovakia voted for the Social Democratic and Communist parties with strong Hungarian representation, and 10-15% for the governing parties or their Hungarian organisations. In Romania the National Hungarian Party was formed at the end of 1922 from the Hungarian People’s Party and the Hungarian National Party. Under a similar name but with more limited possibilities the National Hungarian Party was also founded in Yugoslavia at the same time. These parties were involved both in local governments and in parliamentary work.
In Romania after the Second World War, between 1944 and 1952 the Hungarian People’s Association and between 1968 and 1987 the Council of Workers of Hungarian Nationality represented Hungarian interests and integrated minority Hungarians into the Communist state. The Hungarian Autonomous Province between 1952-1960 and the Maros Autonomous Province between 1960-1968 had a similar integrative function, but they also ensured the use of the mother tongue and minority culture. In Czechoslovakia this dual function was performed by CSEMADOK (from 1949, the Cultural Association of Hungarian Workers in Czechoslovakia, which is still in operation today). In Yugoslavia the Hungarian Cultural Association of Vojvodina operated (1945-1952), and subsequently the possibility of vertical ethnic self-organisation ceased. Organisational life in Croatia was different, where the Hungarian Cultural and Public Education Association of the Republic of Croatia, founded in 1949, continued to function under the name of the Association of Hungarians in Croatia from 1967 until the break-up of Yugoslavia.
Several Hungarian parties were formed in Czechoslovakia after 1989: the Independent Hungarian Initiative (1989-1992), which then transformed into a party under the name Hungarian Civic Party (1992-1998); the Political Movement Co-existence (1990-1998); the Hungarian Christian Democratic Movement (1990-1998); the Hungarian People’s Party (1991-1994). These parties merged in 1998 to form the the Hungarian Coalition Party. The group split off in 2009 established the Slovak-Hungarian mixed party Híd-Most. In Romania the Hungarian Democratic Alliance of Romania (RMDSZ) was the only party representing Hungarian interests until 2002, when the Hungarian Civic Party (2008) and the Hungarian People’s Party of Transylvania (2011) were founded by politicians who had left RMDSZ. In Serbia Hungarian interests were represented by the Hungarian Democratic Community of Vojvodina (1990) and later by the Hungarian Alliance of Vojvodina (VMSZ) which spun off from it in 2004. Several smaller parties were also established. In Slovenia the Hungarian Self-Governing National Community of the Muravidék Region (1975) operated. In Croatia the Hungarian Democratic Community of Croatia was founded in 1993 and the Hungarian National Council of Croatia was founded in 2010. The Hungarian National Council in Serbia was established in 2009. The Hungarian People’s Group Council has been operating in Austria since 1979, and since 1980 the Central Association of Hungarian Associations and Organisations in Austria has been the main representative institution. In 1989 in the Soviet Union, the Hungarian Cultural Association of Transcarpathia (operational up to this day) was founded, from which the Hungarian Democratic Alliance of Ukraine (1993) was formed as a spun-off, and in 2005 it established the Hungarian Democratic Party of Ukraine.
After 1989 minority Hungarian parties took part in government in three countries. From 1996 the RMDSZ was in or supporting the government coalition from outside for 18 years. In Slovakia the MKP was part of the governing coalitions between 1998 and 2006, and Híd-Most was a member of the governing coalitions between 2010 and 2012 and between 2016 and 2020. In Yugoslavia VMSZ held government positions between 2000 and 2002, and between 2008 and 2012, and it also has positions in the government since 2014.
Three major models of political advocacy for Hungarian minorities have emerged over the past century. The pursuit of individual interests meant thematizing of the community’s perceived or real interests in a system of patronage based on personal relations, building up one’s own positions of power and patronage (e.g. in the Romanian royal dictatorship, in state socialism). The model of coordinated organisational integration is centralised advocacy using the tool set of political pacts through centralised processes of bargaining with the political actors of the majority. This was how the Hungarian minority parties’ role as government lobbyists actually worked. Acting as a community – as the third model of advocacy – is aimed at power sharing. The means of this is the assertion of collective rights or the con-social model implemented as a self-governing structure following social transformation on the basis of ideology (socialism, corporatism), i.e. the elimination of power asymmetry in the hope of transcending ethnic fault lines. External intervention is usually expected to bring about this situation.
The policy of Hungarian minorities has developed a variety of institutionalisation practices: 1. no regional Hungarian group consciousness develops, only local institutional representation (e.g. in Austria between the two world wars); 2. regional political organisations, local representations are organised (in Croatia, Slovenia); 3. minority individual representatives are active within the majority party; 4. majority parties operate Hungarian branches; 5. Hungarian party formations are established with links to majority parties; 6. Hungarian party representatives are on the electoral list of the majority party and in the parliamentary caucus thereof; 7. independent Hungarian parties operate in electoral coalitions with majority parties; 8. independent Hungarian parties participate in government coalitions; 9. independent Hungarian parties operate as party affiliates in a corporative political system; 10. operate as Hungarian cultural organisations in a Communist state; 11. independent Hungarian parties operate as electoral co-operations in minority blocs; 12. independent Hungarian parties develop independent (opposition) party politics; 13. independent Hungarian parties operate as “quasi-minority self-governments” maintaining independent political organisations.