Magyars' status in exchange for support in the Socialist International?

The stake of the negotiations between the Magyar Socialist Party and the Party of Social Democracy (PDSR) about concluding a bilateral protocol is the support for social democrats in Bucharest when joining the Socialist International. The negotiations are to be resumed in two weeks.

The Socialists in Budapest, however, requested the leaders of the Romanian governing party to state their position towards the Law on the status of the Magyars abroad before the resumption of the consultations.

The Magyar Socialist Party (MSZP) is preparing to close a protocol with PDSR, the members of the Hungarian socialist delegation said in Cluj-Napoca at the end of last week, according to Mediafax.

One of the representatives of this party, Barath Etele, a socialist deputy in the Budapest Parliament, specified that the talks over the co-operation protocol had been halted until the Hungarian socialists elected a new leadership. He added that the talks were to be resumed after the National MSZP Convention scheduled for Friday.

Until such time comes, PDSR will have to state its position towards the stipulations in the Law on the status of the Magyars abroad, while the socialists in Budapest will continue supporting the Romanian governing party for its accession to the Socialist International, the Budapest delegation feels.

The PDSR leaders expressed their objections to the law on the status of the Magyars abroad. PM Adrian Nastase, president of the governing party, said that this normative act would not be enforced in Romania if the delicate aspects of the law were not cleared up by consultation of the authorities of the two states.

How will the negotiations between the Magyar Socialist Party and PDSR over the bilateral protocol be influenced by the rather restrained opinions the leaders in Bucharest have about the Magyars’ status?

The chairman of the Foreign Policy Committee within the Senate, PDSR Senator Gheorghi Prisecaru, would rather not give a final answer. “Let’s wait and see the result of the negotiations conducted by experts over the law on the Magyars’ status,” the governing party representative says.

Gheorghi Prisecaru explained that suspending the negotiations between the two parties was not caused by “the political differences,” but by the busy schedules on both sides.

The Magyar Socialist Party has the National Convention scheduled, where it has to nominate its candidate for premiership. PDSR on June 16 will hold its Convention when the Social Democrat Party will be formed as a result of the merger of PDSR and PSDR (the Social Democrat Party in Romania).