ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the assumption that the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) serves as a proxy for the Hungarian minority as a collective social actor by analyzing the party’s support among Hungarian voters, its composition, and its organizational structure. It discusses conditions the increasing political distance between Romania’s two main ethno-national groups, which are examined in greater depth. The chapter considers the internal dynamics and changing balance of power within the UDMR, which are associated with the development of its current conception of communal autonomy. The small Mures Autonomous Magyar Region, a faithful application of the Soviet model’s territorial basis, was weakened legally and administratively, and finally eliminated in 1968. The UDMR’s radicalization, however, is more a consequence than a cause of its political marginalization, for leaders such as Tokes defended the moderate line well after the National Salvation Front allied itself with Romanian nationalists.
