RFE/RL NEWSLINE 
Vol. 1, No. 118, 16 September 1997

POLAND BEGINS NATO NEGOTIATIONS. Negotiations between Poland
and NATO aimed at finalizing the terms for Warsaw's entry into the
POLAND BEGINS NATO NEGOTIATIONS. Negotiations between Poland
and NATO aimed at finalizing the terms for Warsaw's entry into the
alliance are scheduled to begin on 16 September in Brussels. They
will take place in five installments, ending on 23 October. Talks with
Hungary began 10 September, while the Czech Republic is due to
start negotiations on 23 September. RFE/RL's Brussels correspondent
reported that negotiations will decide the number of Poles,
Hungarians, and Czechs to be stationed at NATO headquarters as well
as the number of NATO personnel to be deployed on the territory of
the new member countries. NATO will ask new members to help pay
for common military infrastructure.

HUNGARIAN FOREIGN MINISTER STRESSES REFERENDUM'S
IMPORTANCE. Laszlo Kovacs told the parliament on 15 September
that the referendum on joining NATO and on land ownership will
determine the country's future, Hungarian media reported. With
regard to the controversial land ownership vote, he said the
government's goal is not to allow foreigners to own land but to keep
open the door to EU membership. He commented that the cabinet will
regulate the acquisition of farmland by setting "realistic" prices and
by promoting capital investment. Kovacs accused the opposition of
seeking to make an election campaign issue out of land ownership.

HUNGARIAN SMALLHOLDER STAGES PROTEST IN PARLIAMENT.
Mihaly Izso, a member of the Independent Smallholders' Party, has
begun a sit-in in the parliament to protest the government's
proposed amendment to the land law. He said he will end his protest
if the opposition's formulation of the question on foreigners owning
land is also included in the November referendum.




INTER-ETHNIC RELATIONS IN TRANSYLVANIA: RHETORIC AND
REALITY (PART 1)

by George Schopflin

        The centrality of inter-ethnic relations in Transylvania is
beyond dispute. But the complexity of these relations is regularly
clouded by politicians' rhetoric. The reality is that neither the
Romanian majority nor the Hungarian minority is homogeneous and
clouded by politicians' rhetoric. The reality is that neither the
Romanian majority nor the Hungarian minority is homogeneous and
this factor influences attitudes, political responses, and behavior.
        The total population of Transylvania is more than 7 million and
of these fewer than 2 million are Hungarian. But the roughly 5
million Romanians are divided in their sociological make-up. The
principal cleavage is between those who have lived in the region for
generations and those who migrated there after the 1960s.
        This cleavage is the classical one between old-established
inhabitants and newcomers. Essentially, the traditional Romanian
inhabitants of Transylvania have worked out a modus vivendi with
the multi-ethnic character of the area. This does not necessarily
mean that they are particularly pro-Hungarian or even necessarily
sympathetic to the minority, but they are generally prepared to
accept that the Hungarian presence does not challenge their ideas of
what is "normal and natural." They constitute both the absolute and
relative majority of the region. At the same time, there is a small
minority of the old established Romanians that remains strongly
anti-Hungarian.
        Broadly, they have learned to live with the multi-cultural,
multi-lingual nature of Transylvania even if they do not speak
Hungarian. For the elite, it is not unusual to send their children to
German-language schools, partly because the teaching is good and
they have access to another language.
        However, this Transylvanian Romanian elite has never been
particularly influential in Bucharest and its political skills, including
those of dealing with multi-ethnicity, have not been very effective,
given that their cultural norms differ from those of the Regatean
majority. In this sense, there is a mild cultural boundary between
them and the Romanians of the Regat. They are both Romanians but
understand this identity differently. On the other hand, they will
certainly not make common cause with the Hungarians over issues
like territorial autonomy, which the Hungarians have demanded
from time to time for fear that autonomy would lead to separation.
        For the roughly 1 million migrants, who were drawn to
Transylvania during the rapid industrial expansion of the 1970s and
1980s by offers of jobs and housing, the Hungarians are a near
inexplicable and alien element. Sociologically, many of the migrants
are from poor rural backgrounds and have had to cross several social
and cultural boundaries: from village to town, from agricultural to
industrial working, from the Regat to Transylvania.
        Many of them, when they arrived there from the Regat, were
shocked to discover that a significant section of the population was
not only not Romanian but insisted on speaking an alien language
and had very alien ways of doing things. This exacerbated the
alienation that all immigrants experience and gave it an anti-
Hungarian focus. The anti-Magyar rhetoric of the Ceausescu period
found considerable resonance among them.
        These migrants or, by now, former migrants have a particular
burden to carry. Their existence in Transylvania depended on the
center and especially on the heavy subsidies that Bucharest paid to
maintain the often uneconomic industries in which they worked.
They were an unintegrated element, sufficiently numerous to
continue with their own traditions, values and aspirations. Hence the
old established Transylvanian Romanians have not been able to
integrate them because of their dependence on the center and the
different sociological make-up.
        The 1989 collapse of communism has been a severe blow to the
migrants. Their most dependable source of support--the communist
state--has evaporated as the subsidies have dried up. They lack the
skills to make their way in a market-oriented world. And, crucially,
they lack the ablished Romanian population. The remainder, the
great majority, voted solidly for the coalition now in power.

The author lectures at the London School of Economics. Part Two of
this article will appear in tomorrow's "RFE/RL Newsline."


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