Balint Pastor (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)
The Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians will run independently in the upcoming parliamentary elections since its goal are not ministerial seats but to maintain its strong representation and own caucus in the National Assembly of Serbia, the party’s leader, Balint Pastor, told the Aug. 6 edition of the NIN weekly.
“We’ve never insisted on ministerial seats. The model in which we participate in the operation of executive government via state secretaries has proven to yield good results. To us, the content of a coalitional agreement is much more important than how many [ministerial] positions [a party] gets,” Pastor explained.
The Alliance is a current member of the parliamentary majority led by the Serbian Progressive Party.
Asked about the recent political changes in Hungary, Pastor stated that it is the Alliance’s job to forge good relations with the new government “since Vojvodina Hungarians have never not been politically close to the Budapest authorities.” Pastor did acknowledge that “the circumstances are new and it will take time to build mutual trust.”
“I’ve had a meeting with [new Hungarian Prime Minister] Peter Magyar and have also spoken with other representatives of the Tisza party. Those talks constitute the beginning of a new relationship and it is completely natural that, at this phase, the Hungarian administration wants to build a clear picture of how the institutions of Hungarian communities outside Hungary operate,” Pastor concluded.
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