Bitkova Tatiana Georgievna – PhD in Philology, Leading Researcher, INION RAN.
The article is devoted to a comparative analysis of the political systems of Romania and Hungary, within which there are political movements that are similar in content, but have different significance and backgrounds. It is noted that Hungary is a parliamentary republic, while Romania has a semi-presidential form of government. It is assumed that it was the parliamentary form of government that contributed to the establishment of authoritarian tendencies and national conservatism in Hungary. The Romanian semi-presidential republic, on the contrary, became a guarantee of diversity and competition in political life. An overview of social democratic, conservative, and right-wing movements is offered. It is shown that the discourse of nationalists most clearly highlights the complexities of Romanian-Hungarian relations, but even in official statements there is mutual rejection and distrust. The author comes to the conclusion that changes in political paradigms in both countries generally do not affect the state and content of interstate relations. The article also examines the Hungarian policy of the «gathering the nation», which is directly related to Romania, where the largest foreign diaspora of Hungarians lives. It is noted that, despite the membership of both states in the EU and NATO, the authorities of both countries cannot find mutually acceptable solutions. The Romanian authorities defend the idea of the unitarity of their state, the Hungarian ones are trying to promote the idea of the antiquity of the Hungarian statehood, as well as the idea of the need to form autonomy in the Romanian territories, where Hungarians live compactly.
Romania, Hungary, right-wing radicalism, social democracy, national conservatism, national minorities, unitary state, autonomy.
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