Ethnic Hungarian Unity Tested in Romania

The formation of a second ethnic Hungarian political party in Romania is testing unity among the minority's traditionally close-knit community.

Marian Chiriac

Bucharest

News that a local court in Bucharest has approved the creation of the Popular Party of Hungarians in Transylvania, PPMT, has not been welcomed by many members of the 1.4 million-strong ethnic community in Romania.

“For sure it is a mistake to have a new Hungarian party in Romania. The move is most likely to further divide the Hungarians and the short term risk is to lose our political representation in the Romanian Parliament,” Kelemen Hunor, president of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians from Romania, UDMR, has said.

The UDMR is a junior member of current centre-right government, and holds 31 of the 471 seats in parliament. The Union was set up in 1990 and sees PPMT as a direct competitor for the votes of ethnic Hungarians in Romania.

Parliamentary elections are scheduled for the end of next year.

Recent polls show that a significant percentage of ethnic Hungarians in Romania are disappointed with results of UDMR’s policy of joining government coalitions. They are not happy with the longstanding UDMR’s policy and its alleged failure to address issues such as more Hungarian-language, higher education and the return of property belonging to the mainly protestant Hungarian churches that was confiscated after the Second World War.

“UDMR and its leaders failed to fulfill the community’s main demands: increased autonomy and collective rights for Hungarians in Tranyslvania,” said Toro Tibor, the leader of the new Hungarian party. “We are sure we will able to grab votes from all Hungarians in order to increase our rights and also to maintain our identity”.

According to media reports, one of the behind the scene leaders of the new Hungarian party is European MP Laszlo Tokes. He is a long time supporter of greater autonomy for Romania's ethnic Hungarians and also champions close relations between the community and Budapest. His defiance of Romania's former communist authorities in 1989 helped spark the Romanian revolution that overthrew dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

About seven per cent of Romania's 21 million citizens are ethnic Hungarian. Some parts of the community, especially the 600,000 Szeklers, have long campaigned for an autonomous region in Transylvania, which became part of Romania after Austria-Hungary lost World War I.