Hungarian Regional Autonomy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Map of the proposed Hungarian Regional Autonomy

The Hungarian Regional Autonomy (Serbian: Mađarska regionalna samouprava / Мађарска регионална самоуправа, Hungarian: Magyar körzeti önkormányzat) is the name of a proposed new administrative unit in the northern part of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Serbia.

1 Proposal
2 Ethnic groups
3 Other advocates
4 Controversy
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Proposal

The creation of this new administrative unit is proposed by the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, the largest political party of ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina. According to this proposal, the Hungarian Regional Autonomy would be a separate autonomous region in northern part of Vojvodina. This autonomous region would include the nine municipalities of northern Vojvodina: Subotica, Bačka Topola, Mali Iđoš, Kanjiža, Senta, Ada, Bečej, Čoka, and Novi Kneževac. The administrative centre of the region would be Subotica, while the region itself would be part of Vojvodina and Serbia. The proposal for the creation of the Hungarian Regional Autonomy is based on the autonomy model of South Tyrol.

[edit] Ethnic groups

Ethnic map of Vojvodina based on the 2002 municipality data

Ethnic map of Vojvodina based on the 2002 settlement data

Language map of Vojvodina based on the 2002 municipality data

The proposed new region would have a population composed of 52.10% Hungarians, 25.74% Serbs, 5.31% Croats, 4.87% Bunjevci, 3.50% Yugoslavs, 1.69% Montenegrins, 1.34% Roma, and others.

60.40% of all Hungarians living in Serbia and 61.04% of all Hungarians living in Vojvodina would live within the borders of the proposed region.

The ethnic composition of the municipalities, which are supposed to be included into region look as follows:

The municipalities with Hungarian ethnic majority are: Kanjiža (86.52%), Senta (80.51%), Ada (76.64%), Bačka Topola (58.94%), Mali Iđoš (55.92%), and Čoka (51.56%).

The Novi Kneževac municipality has a Serb ethnic majority (59.53%).

The municipalities of Subotica and Bečej are ethnically mixed. The population of Subotica municipality is composed of 38.47% Hungarians, 24.14% Serbs, 11.24% Croats, 10.95% Bunjevci, 5.76% Yugoslavs, 1.25% Montenegrins, etc. The population of Bečej municipality is composed of 48.83% Hungarians, 41.06% Serbs, 2.61% Yugoslavs, 1.16% Roma, 1.06% Croats, etc.

[edit] Other advocates

Besides the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, three smaller Hungarian political parties, Democratic Community of Vojvodina Hungarians, Democratic Party of Vojvodina Hungarians and Hungarian Civic Alliance also advocating territorial autonomy for ethnic Hungarians.

The leaders of the latter three have written an open letter to Boris Tadić and Vojislav Koštunica demanding that the status of Hungarians of Vojvodina be solved in parallel with the negotiations on the final status of Kosovo.

The proposal for territorial autonomy advocated by these parties is similar to the proposal made by the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians. The main difference in this proposal is that it advocating that only 8 municipalities should be included into Hungarian autonomous region, excluding the municipality of Novi Kneževac, which has a Serb ethnic majority.

[edit] Controversy

The creation of the Hungarian Regional Autonomy with proposed regional borders is a controversial issue. If the new region is supposed to be created by the democratic consensus and free voluntary association of the municipalities, it is very unlikely that the citizens of the predominantly Serb municipality of Novi Kneževac would vote to join their municipality to the Hungarian Regional Autonomy.

The question also is how would vote the majority of the citizens of the ethnically mixed municipalities of Subotica and Bečej, since the ethnic Hungarians make up less than 50% of population in these municipalities. For example, in the municipality of Subotica, a proposed administrative centre of the new region, only 38.47% of the population are ethnic Hungarians, while 53.36% of the population are various South Slavic ethnic groups, which speak Serbian or Croatian language.

The proposals for territorial autonomy of Hungarians have received criticism from Serbian political parties, even from those which advocate more autonomy for Vojvodina. Some Serb parties have said that if the Hungarian territorial autonomy occurs then they will demand that Serbian majority areas, particularly Novi Kneževac, be given the right to autonomy within the area or for it not to be included. Serb parties have also said the same about Subotica and Bečej, with some saying that Subotica should be a separate autonomous area also.