Debate on citizenship for Hungarians living abroad

[Phlegethon]

Gândul - Romania

Debate on citizenship for Hungarians living abroad

Hungarian politicians are currently discussing introducing dual citizenship for Hungarians living abroad. The debate primarily serves the interests of the opposition party Fidesz, writes the daily Gândul: "Hungary has once more brought up the problem of automatic citizenship for Hungarians living abroad - estimated at 1.5 million in Romania and over 500,000 in Slovakia. This is a favourite topic of the conservative [opposition leader] Viktor Orban. That was true in 2004. But at that time the move didn't pass the test when it was put to a referendum. Now the opposition has once more seized on it, hoping to win the votes of those who still refuse to accept the Treaty of Trianon [signed after World War I, in 1920] ... in the 2010 elections. ... Even if the initiative doesn't pay off in 2010, Orban will have plenty of time for it if he's ever re-elected prime minister one day. And with all the scandals and crises rocking the Hungarian Socialist Party, Orban's Fidesz is the only party in the race." (06/08/2009)

[Poltergeist]

What happened in 2004 was the biggest shame in modern Hungarian history, when the Hungarian population rejected, on a referendum, a draft of the law which would grant Hungarian citizenship to Hungarians living outside of the current Trianon-imposed borders.

[Horka Ozul]

What happened in 2004 was the biggest shame in modern Hungarian history, when the Hungarian population rejected, on a referendum, a draft of the law which would grant Hungarian citizenship to Hungarians living outside of the current Trianon-imposed borders.

You wouldn't imagine how I and all hungarians outside the mother country have felt. At least for me it was the second Trianon, and shamefully this act of treason came from our own brothers. But I already forgiven them, I know many still cannot forgive them, but if immediately they gonna give us hungarian citizenship with the same rights and responsibilities as our brothers from the mother land, than our nation would defy the Treaty of Trianon from 1920, and our nation at least spiritually would be together once again.

[Osweo]

Forgive an outsider for poking his nose in, but on a general point, would it be possible, I wonder, to move past the unwieldy nation state idea in ethnically mixed regions, by means of overlapping citizenship and jurisdiction? Has anyone ever really tried to work out a scheme for this? Is it inherently unworkable, except within the even worse option of an overarching imperial structure? Trianon was a travesty, like most other redrawings of Europe's borders, but even an honest impartial attempt at that time would have been doomed to alienate many people. :(

[Horka Ozul]

Forgive an outsider for poking his nose in, but on a general point, would it be possible, I wonder, to move past the unwieldy nation state idea in ethnically mixed regions, by means of overlapping citizenship and jurisdiction? Has anyone ever really tried to work out a scheme for this? Is it inherently unworkable, except within the even worse option of an overarching imperial structure? Trianon was a travesty, like most other redrawings of Europe's borders, but even an honest impartial attempt at that time would have been doomed to alienate many people. :(

I believe that for this part of Europe, it would be effective that regions would get a stronger power than national states, yet I believe that for the case of the Carpathian Basin it would be a very good solution that the regions from here composed by different ethnic groups should be united under the governing aura of the Holy Crown of Hungary, as was the case for 1000 years. However the resentments against hungarians are very strong over here, so it would be hard that Vojvodina, Slovakia, Subcarpathia, Transylvania would ever accept in the near future to break away from the states they belong now and accept to be part in a confederation of regions together with today's Hungary. I believe this solution would be for the best of all these historical regions. Together we are strong, divided we have already fallen drastically, and the past 90 years are the proof of this.

[Lathander]

Why did the motherland hungarians refuse to give outlanders citizenship?