Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania
Romániai Magyar Demokrata Szövetség Uniunea Democrată Maghiară din România |
|
---|---|
President | Hunor Kelemen |
Leader in the Senate | Tánczos Barna |
Leader in the Chamber of Deputies | Márton Árpád |
Founded | 25 December 1989 |
Headquarters |
Bucharest (presidency) Cluj-Napoca (presidency and executive presidency) |
Ideology |
Hungarian minority interests Liberal conservatism Regionalism Pro-Europeanism |
European affiliation | European People's Party |
International affiliation | Centrist Democrat International |
European Parliament group | European People's Party |
Senate |
8 / 136
|
Chamber of Deputies |
17 / 329
|
European Parliament |
2 / 32
|
Website | |
www.dahr.ro | |
The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR, Hungarian: Romániai Magyar Demokrata Szövetség, RMDSZ; Romanian: Uniunea Democrată Maghiară din România, UDMR) is a political party in Romania representing the Hungarian minority of Romania.
Officially considering itself a federation of minority interests rather than a party, from the 1990 general elections onwards the UDMR has had parliamentary representation in the Romanian Senate and Chamber of Deputies. From 1996 onwards UDMR has been a junior coalition partner in several governments.
The party is a member of the European People's Party and Centrist Democrat International.
The UDMR was founded on 25 December 1989, immediately after the fall of the Communist dictatorship in the Romanian Revolution of 1989 to represent in public the interests of the Hungarian community of Romania. Its first president was the writer Géza Domokos.
The UDMR obtained consistent results during the 1990, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and the 2012 elections, gaining representation in both houses of the Parliament, until 1996, the UDMR acted in opposition. From 1996 the party governed in a coalition with the Romanian Democratic Convention (Convenţia Democrată Română, CDR)—a wide centre-right alliance that won the elections that year—and obtained some positions in the government of Victor Ciorbea.
Four years later, the opposition party, the Social Democratic Party of Romania (PSD) won the 2000 elections. Although the UDMR did not join the new government as a coalition partner, it did sign a series of annual contracts with the PSD in which the PSD pledged to implement certain legal rights for the Hungarian minority community in return for UDMR's support in parliament.