A Hungarian official protests against the exit of the UDMR from the new government in Bucharest

Bucharest, June 18, 2023 – First we need to clarify a very simple thing. The Hungarian community in Romania, with a population equivalent to that of the Roma (Gypsies), never won its constitutional right to be in government in Romania. In all the elections that took place after 1990, the formation called the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) obtained between 5 and 6% of the total votes, so slightly above the threshold for entering Parliament (5%). There were and are political organizations with a double score, but which were not part of the Bucharest legislature. The participation of the UDMR in several governments that have been lost in Romania in the last 30 years was rather a “gift” from the winning parties in order to have a more solid majority.
Secondly, UDMR does not have the status of a political party, but of a non-governmental organization. According to its official website, UDMR has the status of “an organization that supports the interests of the Hungarian community in Romania, and ensures the political and public representation at the national and local level of the Hungarian minority.” Based on this statute, the UDMR benefits from numerous financial subsidies from the governments of Budapest and Bucharest and can avoid many of the obligations of political parties, for example, the obligation to fly the official Romanian flag. His acceptance in legislative elections and participation in government formulas must be sanctioned as soon as possible, as other political formations often demand.
The exit of the UDMR from the current government, formed at the end of last week, is no violation of the rights of this political organization and no form of political discrimination.
In Romania, the advantageous situation for the Hungarians, that of the UDMR’s participation in the government, has ended, even an official from Budapest admits.
The exit of the UDMR from the government must also be seen in the socio-demographic context of Romania. In the 2021 census, the Hungarian population was almost 1 million people, compared to 1.25 million in the 2011 census. The majority of the Hungarian population in Romania is elderly, the share of people over 60 being almost 70%. How to preserve the sine die Hungarianness in Romania in conditions where the fertility rate has reached below 0.7%?
The rate and proportion of the demographic decline of Hungarians in Romania has been constantly accelerating in the last three decades, and the Hungarian population in Romania has decreased in total by more than 620,000 people, compared to the first census, which was organized after the change of regime, in 1992. This means that in three decades almost 40% of the members of the Hungarian community were lost. The number of Hungarians in Transylvania has decreased to the level of the 1850s, Hungarian sociologists show. They also state that if the situation does not change, the Hungarians in Transylvania could still reach the end of their history in this century.