The new article by Balázs Dobos on the main features of minority participation at the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary elections is now published in Parlamenti Szemle and is available at HERE (in Hungarian).

Abstract

In the 2010s, the opportunities for national minorities in Hungary to participate in public life and be represented were expanded with the introduction of a new institutional channel, the institution of preferential minority parliamentary seats and minority spokespersons. However, the system proved to be controversial in many respects, and in its judgment following the 2022 parliamentary elections, the European Court of Human Rights also condemned several elements of it. This latter, combined with the fact that the country’s most numerous minority, the Roma, failed to nominate their list of candidates, made it particularly relevant to examine in greater detail how the minorities themselves approach the established system, especially in the context of its third election in 2022. The aim of this study is therefore to outline and analyse the key aspects of the participation of minorities in the 2022 parliamentary elections, including the trends in the number of both registered voters and votes cast, comparing these data with those of the previous two parliamentary elections and another channel of participation, the results of the elections of minority self-governments. A comparison with the results of the census and the minority elections, specifically the concentration of voters in a few settlements in many cases and, conversely, the negligible registration in more significant minority settlements, draws attention to the importance of local circumstances. Among the factors influencing voter behaviour and participation, it is important to highlight the institutional barrier that a significant proportion of voters, mainly from smaller ethnic groups, have no realistic chance of reaching the threshold for obtaining a preferential mandate, and their votes for spokespersons are effectively lost, thus they are not particularly encouraged to express their ethnic identity.