Croatia

According to the 2021 census data, 10,315 Croatian citizens identified themselves as Hungarian.

Nearly two-thirds of the Hungarian community in Croatia lives in the counties of Osijek-Baranja and Vukovar-Srem. This is where our educational institutions and most of our cultural associations are located, providing excellent opportunities for preserving our national identity. Although the HMDK has branches in Zagreb, the coastal region, and much of Slavonia, their distance from the two counties mentioned makes it much harder for them to preserve the language and Hungarian identity.
This has always been difficult, since after the Treaty of Trianon, the Southern Territories - and within them, the Hungarian community in Croatia - found themselves in a South Slavic state where every effort was made to assimilate the community now known as the Hungarians of Croatia as quickly as possible.
In 1921, the number of settlements with a Hungarian population of more than 100 barely exceeded one hundred, with a total of 52,000 Hungarians.
Between the two world wars, Hungarian education was rendered impossible, and every effort was made to ensure that the local Hungarian community would be absorbed into the Slavic sea.
After World War II, the Hungarian community in Croatia organized its educational and cultural life, and information dissemination also took place. True, all of this was organized through a strongly ideological lens. The Képes Újság became one of the cornerstones of Hungarian information here, but the socialist spirit was palpable almost until the fall of communism. Regardless, it remains an excellent historical document for our Hungarian community.
The breakup of the South Slavic state led to the dispersion of Hungarians in Croatia. In the 1990 referendum on Croatian independence, 95% of the Hungarian community voted in favor of Croatian independence. This, among other factors, contributed to the expulsion of Hungarians from the Drava Valley and Slavonia from their ancestral homelands. In the name of the Greater Serbian ideology, villages were razed to the ground, many were killed, and they were subjected to psychological or physical terror.
The Democratic Community of Hungarians in Croatia, founded in 1993, provided a new organizational form for both the Hungarians who had fled and those who remained in their homeland. Its goal was to organize the educational and cultural system, and it was driven by the belief that Hungarians living in Serb-occupied territories would also return to Croatian administration. Although the so-called peaceful reintegration began in 1995, this process did not conclude until 1998.
In Osijek, the Hungarian Education and Cultural Center in Croatia was built in 1999 using Croatian budget funds; it includes a kindergarten, an elementary school, and, since 2022, a student dormitory. Thanks to the Hungarian and Croatian governments, our villages have been revitalized. Our villages in Slavonia had to be rebuilt, and our sacred spaces have also been beautified or rebuilt.

Since gaining independence, Croatia has, in part due to its historical experience, taken care to uphold and expand the rights it has secured. In 1995, Hungary and Croatia signed a bilateral minority agreement guaranteeing the use of the mother tongue in private and public life; there are also numerous other guarantees in the fields of education, culture, and information, which together form a reassuring system of safeguards.
In December 2002, the Republic of Croatia adopted the Constitutional Act on National Minorities, which provides, so to speak, European-level minority protection for Hungarians in Croatia as well. It often depends on us, the Hungarians in Croatia, to what extent we exercise these rights.

Following the peaceful reintegration of the occupied territories in Croatia—which are also inhabited by Hungarians—four Hungarian-language elementary schools opened their doors. All of these are regionally funded, with the exception of the Hungarian Education and Cultural Center in Croatia in Osijek, which was founded by the Croatian state.
This Hungarian institution in Osijek provides secondary education in Hungarian. Students can choose from five specializations and take their final exams in Hungarian. Students coming from farther away are accommodated in a modern student dormitory built by the Croatian state. Where native-language education is not available, native-language preservation programs are in place. The University of Zagreb hosts the Department of Hungarian Studies, while the University of Osijek has the Department of Hungarian Language and Literature, which trains interpreters and communication specialists.

Hungarians in Croatia are free to use their language in private life, in education, in the conduct of public affairs, and in political life in those counties where our population exceeds 33 percent. Although legal guarantees exist, unfortunately we often do not exercise this right. Although we can apply for a Croatian identity card in certain administrative units, many do not exercise this right. Experience shows that students who have been educated in the Hungarian educational system in Croatia use their mother tongue more consciously both in their private lives and wherever the law permits it.

Our Hungarian community is guaranteed cultural autonomy, with the Croatian state providing the necessary financial support. The HMDK is responsible for organizing cultural activities. There are many high-quality dance ensembles operating under the umbrella organization of the Hungarian community in Croatia, but the Csárdás folk dance ensemble from Csúza stands out among them.
Among the living traditions—without claiming to be exhaustive—we can list the Vörösmart wine marathon, the Lasko paprika festival, or the Kopács fishing days. Theater groups add even more color to the vibrant cultural life. Numerous tangible and intangible heritage elements characteristic of our region enrich the collection of Hungaricum treasures.

The Democratic Community of Hungarians in Croatia considers it very important for Hungarians in Croatia to stay informed in their native language. For this reason, it publishes a weekly newspaper titled Új Magyar Képes Újság, as well as other periodicals, such as Rovátkák, which features literary works. The children’s newspaper Barkóca is very popular among elementary school students. The editorial staff of Drávatáj produces a weekly Hungarian-language program on the regional television station Slavonska televizija (Szlavón TV), and the Hungarian-language broadcasts of the long-established radio station in Osijek also help keep the community informed in Hungarian.

In the Croatian parliament (Sabor), the Hungarian community in Croatia has a guaranteed seat, a position for which more than one group competed in the past, leading to divisions within our community. Today, we can speak of a unified Hungarian community in Croatia, as evidenced by the fact that since 2016, the HMDK candidate, Róbert Jankovics, has held the seat reserved for the Hungarian community. Róbert Jankovics’s work is well reflected in the renovation of churches, the creation of new community spaces, and the development of educational infrastructure. The HMDK has deputy leaders in several districts, and Hungarian representatives are also active in the district councils.