Democratic Union of Hungarians in Croatia

The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Croatia (HMDK) was established as a civil society organization in Zagreb on April 6, 1993. Its primary objective was to unite the Hungarian community living in Croatia—which had become scattered during the war of independence—and to organize the representation of its interests. The primary goal in the early years was to reintegrate the Serbian-occupied areas of Croatia inhabited by Hungarians back into Croatian administration as soon as possible, so that those who had been expelled from the Drava Region and Eastern Slavonia could return, as well as all those who were unwilling to live under Serbian psychological and physical terror and had left their homeland. Just one month after its founding, HMDK President Árpád Pasza represented the organization at the FUEN General Assembly in Flensburg and spoke on behalf of the Hungarian community in Croatia, which was still bleeding from a thousand wounds at the time.
In the fall of 1995, early parliamentary elections were held, in which the HMDK’s candidate (in the national minority constituency, national minority civil society organizations may also serve as nominating bodies), Sándor Jakab, won. Thanks to his representation, the government office responsible for minority affairs allowed the publication of the Hungarian weekly newspaper Új Magyar Képes Újság in Croatia. In January 1998, the UN-led peaceful reintegration of Serbian-occupied territories in Croatia was completed, a process in which the HMDK also played an active role.
Thanks in part to the HMDK’s behind-the-scenes work, the Croatian Hungarian Education and Cultural Center, headquartered in Osijek, opened its doors in September 1999; today, it includes a kindergarten, an elementary school, a high school, and a student dormitory.
Our organization maintained good relations with the first Orbán government, which devoted significant attention to assisting Hungarian communities devastated by the war. The primary goal was to renovate our religious sites, but financial resources from the motherland also made it possible to renovate a few cultural centers. At the same time, HMDK local chapters and member organizations were continuously being established throughout Croatia.
In 2000, there were new parliamentary elections, in which the HMDK candidate, Dr. Tibor Szántó, won the Hungarian seat in the Croatian Parliament.
In January 2002, we opened the first Hungarian Certificate office in the Carpathian Basin, in Osijek.
In the 2003 minority local elections and the parliamentary elections held later that year, HMDK candidates were victorious.
In January 2010, citing health reasons, Árpád Pasza resigned after 17 years of successful leadership, and the then-vice president, Sándor Jakab, became president. Since December 2017, Róbert Jankovics has served as president of the HMDK and, since 2016, as its representative in the National Assembly.