Hungarian Citizenship in the Shadow of Memory

In 2010, days after the winning the elections, the victorious Fidesz party has amended the legal process of acquiring Hungarian citizenship. Consequently, anyone who presumes to have had Hungarian ancestors and could prove their knowledge of the Hungarian language is now able to gain the Hungarian citizenship in an easier and shorter process. While this provision could apply to any descendant of Hungarian citizens in the world, it is clearly tailored to the Hungarian-speaking minorities living in the territory of ‘historic Hungary’, in towns and villages awarded to Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia in the post-WWI Treaty of Trianon in 1920.

The trauma of the Treaty of Trianon has become the focal point of Hungarian historical memory. Caring for ‘Hungarians living beyond the current borders’ recurs as a vital political topic and commemoration of pre-Trianon times has been integrated to Hungarian politics of memory. Rewarding citizenship to the Hungarian-speaking inhabitants of the ‘historic’ territories has become a question of political prestige as a sign of the preservation of Hungarian culture and identity. The preservationist viewpoint is stressed more and more since 2010.

The paper seeks to examine the interconnectedness of Hungarian politics of memory, identity and their effect on the issue of citizenship by answering three questions: (1) the role of the Treaty of Trianon in Hungarian politics of memory, (2) the debate on whether ‘Hungarians beyond the borders’ have a place in such politics and lastly (3) the culmination of these two processes in the practice of shaping Hungarian citizenship.