Only Hungarian Party Can Assert Ethnic Hungarian Interests in Serbia

Can the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (VMSZ) tip the scales in the formation of Serbia's government? Have the migrants disappeared from the settlements along the border for good, or is the Serbian interior ministry only taking action because of the election campaign? What was in the focus of discussion with Viktor Orban? These are some of the questions Magyar Nemzet asked Balint Pasztor, acting VMSZ president. VMSZ is the only ethnic Hungarian political party with a full list of candidates running in the parliamentary and local elections on December 17.

Szerbia, Szabadka Rábé Magyarmajdán bevándorlók. Pásztor B Fotó: Teknős Miklós

Serbia's news outlets describe the upcoming elections as crucial. What makes the elections crucial for Hungarians living in Vojvodina? Would other parties not stand up for Hungarian causes?

That the interests of ethnic Hungarians can only be asserted by an ethnic Hungarian party has become clear in the Carpathian Basin over the past decades. In Serbia, this was the case when the government had a different composition and this has also been evident in the last ten years. For instance, ensuring that a class taught in the Hungarian language could be started with 5 enrolled students in areas with high ethnic Hungarian population is only important for us Hungarians and a Hungarian party.

It is important for us that the children living in these areas grow up as Hungarians.

We have achieved this although regulations would require a minimum of 15 students to start a class. It is only in Serbia that ethnic Hungarians managed to put this into practice. Preserving Hungarian autonomy in the field of information provision and culture is again something that is only important for a Hungarian party. In order to maintain positive relations between Serbs and ethnic Hungarians and not to have massive media coverage of Hungarians being beaten up, like 15 years ago, a strong representation of Hungarian interests is needed. Serbs understand strength, and the measurement unit of strength in politics is the number of votes and seats. There is no alternative to a strong representation of Hungarian interests in the national and regional parliaments.

The current election campaign kicked off practically the day after your father's funeral. Since then, you have been visiting settlements in Vojvodina, making statements to the press, holding public forums and participating in political meetings. What do you draw on?

I was brought up with the idea that work and service to the community come before anything else. That's how my father lived. I'm trying to carry that on as best I can, and the good thing is that it's not a one-man fight. I feel every day that the whole community is behind me.

The current period is the most difficult in the history of the Hungarian community in Vojvodina since the 1990s, as the death of my father has created a huge void in the public life of Vojvodina Hungarians. We have to work hard, as our community must remain politically strong in the coming period.

What role did the VMSZ play in the evolution of the current relationship between  Hungarians and Serbs?

My father, Istvan Pasztor, has undying merits in enabling Hungarians and Serbs to establish historical relations. What ethnic Hungarians and Serbs have achieved is something that only the Germans and the French, or the Germans and the Poles have managed to do in the whole of Europe.

The basis of today's historical relationship, the first step, was to put the past right.

Today, the anti-Hungarian atrocities committed in 1944-1945 are no longer denied in Serbia, moreover, Serbia's parliament has adopted a parliamentary declaration condemning the events. The two heads of state paid tribute, and in 2014, the Serbian government repealed two resolutions dating back to 1945, which declared Hungarians in Vojvodina collectively to be war criminals. Unfortunately, documents and legislation of this type are still in force in some EU member states.

We couldn't have achieved all this without a strong representation of Hungarian interests, but courage was also needed in Budapest and Belgrade. The tripartite partnership has meant that we managed to close the past, and now we can talk about infrastructure investments, joint ventures and trade in goods as part of the cooperation between the two countries.

Recently, I attended a conference where researchers agreed that targeted development of transport infrastructure would sooner or later lead to economic prosperity. The Szeged-Subotica (Szabadka) railway line was recently opened, and a link to Baja in southern Hungary is also under construction. Meanwhile, the railway line connecting Belgrade and Budapest will soon be built. Could we be approaching a period of economic prosperity?

That's exactly right. The Vojvodina Hungarians will be the biggest beneficiaries of this process, but at the same time it will also benefit all citizens in both countries, as well as citizens in other countries. The railway projects will soon transform the border region from a peripheral to a central area. This is good for commuters, good for those who have connections with Hungary for some reason, and vice versa, and also helps domestic travel. Settlements in the border region such as Hajdukovo (Hajdujaras), Backi Vinogradi (Kiralyhalom), Horgos, Palic (Palics) will be in a situation they have never been in before.

VMSZ Acting President Balint Pasztor and Construction and Transport Minister Janos Lazar before the departure of the first train from Szeged (Source:Facebook)

These projects, which are important for the Hungarian community in Vojvodina, would not have been possible if the past had not been put right first. A precondition for building the future is to bring the most painful period of our common history to an end on a partnership basis, clarifying the past and not sweeping the facts under the carpet.

Viktor Orban received you in the Carmelite monastery on November 10. What did you discuss?

The prime minister received me a few days after my father's tragic death, and we reaffirmed the long-standing alliance between the Hungarian government and the VMSZ. We also discussed specific issues that are important for the survival and development of the Hungarian community in Vojvodina. These are not necessarily matters to deal with at prime ministerial level, but I asked for Viktor Orban's personal help in extending the opening hours of the Horgos-Roszke border crossing point number two. Ten days later, this border crossing was open around the clock.

(Photo: MTI/MTVA/PM's Press Office/Zoltan Fischer)

With regard to the Szeged-Subotica railway line, I asked the prime minister to ensure that a passenger-friendly timetable is introduced for the train service. A few days later I spoke with Construction and Transport Minister Janos Lazar, and at the same time we also handled these matters on the Serbian side. On November 28, the first train left, according to a timetable we had agreed on. The third topic concerned the continuation of the economic development program launched in 2016. I asked the prime minister to allow us to announce a new call for applications after a pause of three years due to the difficulties caused by the pandemic and the war. The call opened at the end of November, and Hungarians in Vojvodina can apply for funds amounting to four billion Hungarian forints.

VMSZ will have to face a number of challenges in the coming period. Perhaps the most important of these is the declining Hungarian population in the Carpathian Basin, and this also applies to Vojvodina. What is the response of the Alliance of  Vojvodina Hungarians to this?

 Gaining a strong presence in parliament is crucial in order to have our interests represented and to facilitate the prospering of the Hungarian community here in our motherland and in our mother tongue. Economic development support, the scholarship system, the Europa College, which has been operating in Novi Sad (Ujvidek) for almost a decade, as well as the infrastructural developments, which are primarily implemented with the help of the Hungarian government all serve this goal. However, it is also important to be present in the parliament and the government in Belgrade, to secure Serbian resources for these endeavors.

After his speech at the Tusvanyos Festival in Romania, Viktor Orban encouraged Hungarian organizations operating outside the country's borders to examine their legal systems for ways to adapt local variations of the tax and loan relief and housing subsidies Hungary grants to families with children. Has VMSZ explored this issue?

"Yes. In the way of receiving these subsidies, the Serbian government has never indicated any intention of obstructing the process. I am confident that we will find a way to implement these schemes even though Serbia is not a member of the European Union. That is yet another reason to have a strong representation of Hungarian interests in Belgrade and to establish solid working relations with the political power in Serbia.

In the fall, there were numerous occasions when immigrants were firing guns in a turf war in the vicinity of the settlements along the border, but these have now stopped due to the action of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior. Many commenters on social media, were of the opinion that it was cleared up because of the election campaign. Is this true? 

 "I can refute that, as Serbia is a country where some sort of election is taking place every year. If the authorities had taken action only because of the campaign, then there would have been several instances of ending the migrant violence since 2015, but unfortunately this was not the case. All along, we have firmly demanded that the state fulfill its basic duty of ensuring the population's safety. What we had said earlier has now been proven right: if the Serbs wanted to establish order, it could be achieved in two weeks. The authorities have broken the chain of human smuggling networks. It is no longer possible to enter these border settlements without being checked by police. There is no alternative to having a constant police presence in the area. In the last eight years, VMSZ was the only Serbian parliamentary party to call for this.

If public opinion polls are correct, it may happen that Aleksandar Vucsic cannot form a government on his own. Is it possible that VMSZ will be the party tipping the scale in the formation of the government?

This is also conceivable, but the most important thing now is to maximize the number of votes so that there is a Hungarian future in Vojvodina. The post-election parliamentary mathematics will show what our mandate numbers will be sufficient for. I think that the aforementioned cooperation benefited the relationship between the two countries and the Hungarians of Vojvodina, so we definitely want to continue it.

How many mandates would you be satisfied with?

It is crucial that we be able to maintain an independent parliamentary group in Belgrade and keep the number of seats in the provincial parliament. As VMSZ shapes its own politics independently, our candidates are standing for elections independently. It would be important to be free of any coalitional constraints in the matter of parliamentary work. In recent weeks, we have conducted a very intense, powerful, fast-paced campaign, covering the all of Vojvodina, so we are confident that we will gain even more seats than we currently have. In the last elections, only one mandate was missing for Aleksandar Vucsic's party and the VMSZ to form a government independently. And VMSZ lacked only 65 votes to gain a sixth mandate. We learned at our own detriment then, that every vote counts.

There are a large number of Vojvodina Hungarians living in Hungary. What is your message to them?

I would like to ask Vojvodina Hungarians living in Hungary to come home on the third Sunday of Advent, spend a weekend together with their families a week before Christmas, and support the only Hungarian and the only Vojvodina list, the list of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (VMSZ), so that we can continue the work so important to the community with appropriate authorization. No one else will undertake the representation of Vojvodina Hungarians but us, and support is needed.

Cover photo: Balint Pasztor, Acting President of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (VMSZ) (Photo: Miklos Teknos)