Browsing by Subject "hungarians"

Since the fall of the communist regime, the discussion on Hungarian autonomy in Transylvania has frequently been a bone of contention between the political representatives of this minority and those of the majority Romanians. At the same time, the debate inside the Hungarian elite of Romania as to how best to pursue this idea has created divisions even among the Hungarians of Transylvania themselves. This thesis uses Critical Discourse Analysis to observe how the two significant competing parties, the Democratic Union of Hungarian in Romania (UDMR) and the People’s Party for Magyars in Transylvania (PPMT), define autonomy and also formulate the arguments for its implementation in Transylvania. The starting point of the analysis is 2011, the date PPMT was created, moving the internal competition between UDMR’s different platforms to a party-to- party contest. The analysis combines literature on ethnic identity and autonomy, explaining how the two merge, inside the political discourse of the Hungarian elite, to create the main arguments for Hungarian autonomy. The results show that besides the concern for administrative efficiency, the plea for autonomy stems from the belief that such a form of organisation represents the institutional guarantee for the preservation of a certain Hungarian identity (Transylvanian, Szeklar etc.). As consequence, both Hungarian parties in Romania militate for decentralisation, juxtaposing the national government to the local and regional authorities in a discussion which disputes the legitimacy of the Romanian centralised state. To support their cause, the Hungarian elite references on many occasions other examples of autonomy in Europe, focusing on the Italian South Tyrol, Finland Åland region, Spanish Catalonia as well as the Serb region of Vojvodina, all of which obtained their status following agreements with the representatives of the majority population. Despite converging in their belief in the benefits of autonomy, the two Hungarian parties differ substantially in rhetoric and style of argumentation. While UDMR opts for a more nuanced discussion within the possibilities of the Romanian constitution, the People’s Party advocates a radical change which entails federalism and autonomous regions. In what can be regarded as a continuation of the inter-war ideology of Transylvanism, the People’s Party discusses autonomy in light of a perceived distinct Transylvanian identity while favouring and indicating strong relations with the kin-state Hungary and its current government. In order to bypass or speed up the negotiations with the Romanians counterparts, the Hungarian elite of Romania has turned its attention to the EU. Starting from the hypothesis that Romania’s accession in January 2007 to the status of EU’s member state has provided the Hungarian elite with new mechanisms of promoting their claims, the analysis follows the discourse referring to the possibilities as well as the limitations of the new context. The results shows that the Hungarian elite in Romania is generally dissatisfied with the tackling of ethnic minorities on European Union level and is determined to push forward for local, national, regional and European initiatives that would favour their cause.