Nation-Building and Contested Identities: Romanian & Hungarian ...

Can Democracy Work in Southeastern Europe?number of seats in parliament and formed a governing coalition with theSocial Democratic Union (SDU) and the Hungarian Democratic Unionin Romania (HDUR).The second statement reads as follows: “De-ethnicization of the governmentis a major step towards a civic/democratic understanding ofnationhood.” In order to address this issue, I will briefly summarize themain aspects related to the process of reconciliation between Romaniaand Hungary. 42 On 16 September 1996, before the elections of November,Romania and Hungary signed in Timiºoara the “basic treaty” recognizingthe existing borders and the rights of ethnic minorities, which createda sound basis for collaboration and political partnership. 43 Both countrieswere interested in signing the treaty as a result of international pressure. 44With regard to the process of negotiations for signing the treaty, I wouldlike to emphasize a significant modification of Brubaker’s model of “triadicrelational nexus” composed of the national minority, nationalizingstate and external national homeland. 45 My point is that because of thebloody dissolution of Yugoslavia and the international efforts to put anend to ethnic cleansing, the “relational nexus” took a new form, which isgenerally applicable to cases similar to that of Romania. 46 For the Romaniancase, this new “triadic relational nexus” is composed of the nationalizingstate (Romania), external national homeland (Hungary), and internationalorganizations (UN, OECD, NATO, and the like). The nationalminority, represented by its party organized along ethnic lines (the HungarianDemocratic Union in Romania), occupies different positions withinthis new triangular relational nexus. Between 1990 and 1996, HDURtook mainly positions that placed it close to the external national homeland(Hungary) and international organizations. Nevertheless, the reconciliationprocess and the signing of the basic treaty forced the HDUR totake a more natural position, somewhere in the middle of the triangularrelational nexus described above. Eventually, although HDUR opposedthe signing of the treaty, the external national homeland (Hungary) decidedto sign the treaty with the nationalizing state (Romania) under pressureof international organizations. 47After the elections of November 1996, HDUR became a member ofthe ruling coalition. In spite of the pressure from more militant factionsdemanding regional and ethnic autonomy, HDUR did not withdraw fromthe government. In my opinion, HDUR participation in the governmentrepresented a major step towards a democratic understanding of thenation. In many respects, it constituted a cognitive dissonance and, therefore,a basis for an internal reconciliation. 48 Nevertheless, new cognitiveelements need to be added in order to change the existing stereotypes atthe majority level with regard, for instance, to the loyalty of the ethnic285