Abstract

Inter-civilizational relations have been, for most of the history, antagonistic. Political and cultural identities have played a key role in the development of good neighborly relations, but also of conflicts. From the beginning of the Middle Ages, Europe was subjected to cultural and armed revisionism, which caused a series of conflicts between nations that would be born throughout history, influencing the present.

As Samuel Huntington remarked, “the West is the only civilization that has had a major, sometimes devastating, impact on all others,” which is why it is understandable why the nations of Europe fought to be part of this West.

The Romanian-Hungarian conflict has deep roots, being able to be identified since the reign of King Stefan I of the Hungarians (1000-1038), the conquest of Transylvania by the Hungarians taking place completely in 1200.

Since then and until now, interethnic relations have been permanently conflictual, the appearance of Greater Romania at the end of the First World War and the regain of the right to govern Transylvania by the Romanian authorities being the stake of countless systemic diplomatic, political and social conflicts.

With a Hungarian ethnic minority of about 1.5 million citizens and a parliamentary group representing Hungarians trying to gain autonomy for a central region, Romania is facing a dilemma – does ethnic Hungarian loyalty to the Romanian state exist? ESGA seeks to formulate, based on a political and social analysis, proposals that limit the impact of intercultural and interethnic conflict on the legal and constitutional order of Romania.

Author: Cătălin-Gabriel Done

The Policy Paper in Romanian can be found here.