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Vojvodina in Serbia: The Politics of Multinational Regionalism

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Multiethnic Regionalisms in Southeastern Europe

Part of the book series: Comparative Territorial Politics ((COMPTPOL))

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Abstract

This chapter analyses the politics of regionalism in Serbia’s autonomous province of Vojvodina since 1990. The main focus is on one regionalist party, the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV), but the chapter also considers the regionalist wing of the state-wide Democratic Party (DS) as well as the main Hungarian minority party. Stjepanović identifies the lack of a truly regionalist historiography, strong and rather static groupness, and a relatively homogenous economic structure across the region resulting in a multinational regionalism. Vojvodina’s regionalism is a mixture of a particular understanding of Serbian history that is not shared by all communities (and from which it seeks legitimacy), the multiethnic character of the territory, and a strong economic interest in having self-regulated fiscal competences supported by an overwhelming majority of Vojvodinians but without a dominant regionalist party.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Kann (1974), p. 399.

  2. 2.

    Although the population of Vojvodina was 11.5% of the Kingdom of SCS, the taxes collected on its territory amounted to 36.9% in 1925. See Dragomir Jankov, Vojvodina, Propadanje jednog regiona: podaci i činjenice (Novi Sad: Graphica Academica, 2004), p. 56.

  3. 3.

    Jankov (2004).

  4. 4.

    “Postnovogodišnje dizanje prašine”, Dnevnik, 11 January 2009.

  5. 5.

    István Bibó, Democracy, Revolution, Self-Determination (Boulder: Social Science Monographs, 1991), p. 27.

  6. 6.

    Ibid., p. 28.

  7. 7.

    László Szarka, “Artificial Communities and an Unprotected Protective Power: The Trianon Peace Treaty and the Minorities” in László Szarka (ed.) Hungary and the Hungarian Minorities (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), p. 16.

  8. 8.

    Károly Kocsis and Eszter Kocsis-Hodosi, Hungarian Minorities in the Carpathian Basin: a Study in Ethnic Geography (Toronto: Matthias Corvinus, 1995), p. 86.

  9. 9.

    A true believer in Hungarian-Yugoslav cooperation Teleki committed suicide when Nazi invading armies en route to Yugoslavia entered Hungary. See Balazs Alboncz, Pal Teleki (1879–1941): The Life of a Controversial Hungarian Politician (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006).

  10. 10.

    István Deák, “Historiography of the Countries of Eastern Europe: Hungary” in The American Historical Review, Vol. 97, No. 4 (Oct., 1992), p. 1062.

  11. 11.

    Enikő Sajti, Hungarians in the Voivodina 1918–1947 (New York: Columbia University Press; 2003).

  12. 12.

    Peter Rokai, Zoltan Đere, Tibor Pal and Aleksandar Kasaš, Istorija Mađara (Beograd: Clio, 2002).

  13. 13.

    Aleksandar Kasaš: “Odjek međunarodnih prilika u Vojvodini između dva svetska rata”, Istraživanja 2004, No. 15, pp. 265–270.

  14. 14.

    David MacKenzie, Ilija Garašanin: Balkan Bismarck (Boulder: East European Monographs, 1985), p. 42.

  15. 15.

    Jovan Cvijić: “O nacionalnom radu”, 1907, reprinted in Govori i članci, I (Beograd, 1921), pp. 51–76.

  16. 16.

    Banac (1992).

  17. 17.

    Ćosić was not officially named one of the authors of the ‘Memorandum’ but was closely engaged in its inception. His role in the precedings of the memorandum remains controversial.

  18. 18.

    Jasna Dragović-Soso, ‘Saviours of the Nation’: Serbia’s Intellectual Opposition and the Revival of Nationalism (London: Hurst, 2002).

  19. 19.

    Although he advocates the thesis in his earlier works, it is most elaborated in Milorad Ekmečić, Srbi na istorijskom raskršću (Beograd: SKZ, 1999).

  20. 20.

    Vasilije Krestić, Iz prošlosti Srema, Bačke i Banata (Beograd: Srpska književna zadruga, 2003), p. 32.

  21. 21.

    Drago Njegovan, Prisajedinjenje Vojvodine Srbiji (Novi Sad: Muzej Vojvodine, 2004), p. 320.

  22. 22.

    The opposing camp among the Serb politicians in 1918 as to unification with Serbia was represented by the leader of the Democratic Party, Vasa Stajić. Stajić argued that Vojvodina should not have been absorbed by Serbia directly but it should have joined the Kingdom of Serbs , Croats and Slovenes together with the historic lands of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia , and Dalmatia . See Julijan Tamaš (ed.), Vasa Stajić – misao i delo (Novi Sad: VANU, 2008).

  23. 23.

    Prečani (from Serbo-Croat preko—across) is the generic term for Serbs from the former Habsburg lands, in this context, Croatian and Vojvodina Serbs .

  24. 24.

    Čedomir Popov and Jelena Popov, Autonomija Vojvodine-srpsko pitanje (Sremski Karlovci: Karlovačka umetnička radionica, 2000), pp. 38–39.

  25. 25.

    Ranko Končar, Opozicione partije i autonomija Vojvodine (1929–1941) (Novi Sad: Mir, 1995).

  26. 26.

    Dimitrije Boarov, Politička istorija Vojvodine (Novi Sad: Europanon Consulting, 2001).

  27. 27.

    Miloš Vasić, et al. “Čudesni svet Bracike Kertesa”, Vreme, No. 520, 20 December 2000.

  28. 28.

    John B. Allcock, Explaining Yugoslavia (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), p. 47.

  29. 29.

    Paul Flach, Goldene Batschka: Ein Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus der Batschka (München, 1953), pp. 82–83.

  30. 30.

    Derek Beales, Joseph II: Against the World, 1780–1790 vol. II (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 168–214.

  31. 31.

    Peter F. Sugar, Nationality and Society in Habsburg and Ottoman Europe (Aldershot: Variorum, 1997), p. 24.

  32. 32.

    Ivo Goldstein, Židovi u Zagrebu 1918–1941 (Zagreb: Novi Liber, 2005) p. 17.

  33. 33.

    Kann (1974), p. 363.

  34. 34.

    Sajti (2003), pp. 25–90.

  35. 35.

    Randolph L. Braham, The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary, Volume II (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), pp. 716–720.

  36. 36.

    Jankov (2004), p. 77.

  37. 37.

    Zoran Janjetović, “The Disappearance of the Germans from Yugoslavia: Expulsion or Emigration?”, Tokovi istorije,no. 1–2 2003, p. 89.

  38. 38.

    See Tibor Várady, ‘On the Chances of Ethnocultural Justice in East Central Europe’ in Will Kymlicka and Magda Opalski. Can Liberal Pluralism be Exported?—Western Political Theory and Ethnic Relations in Eastern Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).

  39. 39.

    Florian Bieber and Jenni Winterhagen, ‘Ethnic Violence in Vojvodina: Glitch or Harbinger of Conflicts to Come?’, ECMI Working Paper, 2006, p. 5.

  40. 40.

    Ibid.

  41. 41.

    See Human Rights Watch, Taoci tenzije (Belgrade, November 2008).

  42. 42.

    Of the 379,135 refugees that fled to Serbia during the 1990s and still lived there in 2002, some 49.2% lived in Vojvodina, although the province only accounts for 27.1% of the population of Serbia (Bieber and Winterhagen, 2006, p. 4.).

  43. 43.

    Srđan Cvijić, “Srbizacija Vojvodine—mit multietničnosti”, Vojvodina: Evropski region i priključenje Srbije/SCG Evropskoj uniji (Belgrade: Hisperia, 2006), pp. 79–81.

  44. 44.

    Ibid.

  45. 45.

    Ratko Bubalo, “Izbjeglice i nacionalne manjine u regionalnom kontekstu”, Ogledi o regionalizaciji (Subotica: Centar, 2005), p. 108.

  46. 46.

    Beáta Huszka, “Voivodina’s Autonomy and its Minority Protection Dimension”, Hungarian Studies, vol. 22., 2008, pp. 135–156.

  47. 47.

    Executive Council of APV and the GTZ, Project of the Regional Development Plan of AP Vojvodina, (Novi Sad, 2003), p. 56.

  48. 48.

    The first and so far only ethnic Slovak party in Vojvodina (and Serbia) was established in March 2010, renamed as the Party of Vojvodina Slovaks in October 2010 (Strana vojvodinských Slovákov, Statut http://www.svs.org.rs).

  49. 49.

    See the interview with József Kasza, former president of the VMSZ http://www.vmsz.org.rs/article.php?lg=sr&id_article=3819 (last accessed 20 May 2010).

  50. 50.

    Tamás Korhecz “Chances for Ethnic Autonomy in Vojvodina: Analysis of the Latest Autonomy Proposal of Hungarian Political Parties in Vojvodina” in Kinga Gál, Minority Governance in Europe (Budapest: LGI/OSI, 2002).

  51. 51.

    Nacionalni savet mađarske nacionalne manjine, “Statut”, Subotica, 19 October 2002.

  52. 52.

    “Mađari u narodnjačkom bloku”, Politika, 17 November 2007.

  53. 53.

    Interview with Sándor Egeresi, speaker of Vojvodina’s Assembly and a VMSZ member, Novi Sad, 9 February 2010.

  54. 54.

    István Pásztor, VMSZ president, “Ne odustajemo od teritorijalne autonomije”, Magazin Vojvodina issue 3, 2008.

  55. 55.

    Pokrajinski Sekretarijat za propise upravu i nacionalne manjine, APV, Izvršno veće Vojvodine, Informacija o incidentima na nacionalnoj osnovi koji su se desili u Vojvodini u 2003. i u 2004. godini (Novi Sad, 10 January 2005).

  56. 56.

    Bieber and Winterhagen (2006), p. 16.

  57. 57.

    Pokrajinski Sekretarijat za propise upravu i nacionalne manjine, APV, Izvršno veće Vojvodine, Informacija o realizaciji četvrte faze projekta „Afirmacija multikulturalizma i tolerancije u Vojvodini (Novi Sad, June 2009).

  58. 58.

    Egeresi (2010).

  59. 59.

    “Autonomija Vojvodine je srpsko pitanje”, Građanski list, 8 February 2009.

  60. 60.

    See the speech of the Hungarian President László Sólyom at the inauguration of the monument to the mediaeval Hungarian king Stephen in Horgoš/Horgos, Vojvodina, 12 March 2010. “Sólyom László köztársasági elnök beszéde Horgoson, Szent István szobrának avatásán” http://www.keh.hu/beszedek20100312_horgos_szent_istvan_szobranak_avatasa.html Last accessed 27 March 2010.

  61. 61.

    Radoš Radivojević, “Evaluacija stanja međuetničkih odnosa kod mladih u Vojvodini”, Novi Sad, 2007.

  62. 62.

    Differentia, Istraživanje o stavovima građana regiona Srbije prema toleranciji, suočavanju s prošlošću, decentralizaciji i prepoznavanju osnovnihdemokratskih vrednosti, Niš, 2009.

  63. 63.

    Zsolt Lazar and Dragan Koković, “Etnička distanca u Vojvodini“, Sociološki pregled, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 251–264.

  64. 64.

    Allcock, p. 49.

  65. 65.

    Ibid., p. 109.

  66. 66.

    Jankov (2004), p. 56.

  67. 67.

    Zakon o agrarnoj reform i kolonizaciji, “Službeni list FNRJ”, No. 64, 1945.

  68. 68.

    Singleton and Carter, p. 221.

  69. 69.

    Jankov, p. 91.

  70. 70.

    Referred to in Slobodna Vojvodina, No. 23, 15 September 2007.

  71. 71.

    Singleton and Carter, p. 215/.

  72. 72.

    Jankov, p. 91.

  73. 73.

    Ibid., p. 102.

  74. 74.

    Slađana Gluščević, “Sistematska pljačka otete autonomije”, Magazin Vojvodina, issue 1, 2007.

  75. 75.

    Todor Gajinov, “Posledice političkog nasilja”, Magazin Vojvodina, issue 1, 2007.

  76. 76.

    Boris Begović and Boško Mijatović, Četiri godine tranzicije u Srbiji (Belgrade: Goragraf, 2005), p. 12.

  77. 77.

    Stanko Radmilović, “Sumorna faktografija ekonomske stvarnosti Srbije”, Računovodstvo 2010, vol. 54, no. 1–2, pp. 7–23.

  78. 78.

    http://www.rtv.rs/sr_lat/drustvo/jedanaest-godina-od-pocetka-nato-bombardovanja_180101.html

  79. 79.

    Forum V-21, Dokument o Vojvodini od 1989. do 2002. Godine (Novi Sad, 2002).

  80. 80.

    The last set of sanctions were abolished in 2005 when trade with the USA was normalized.

  81. 81.

    Izvršno veće AP Vojvodine, Program privrednog razvoja AP Vojvodine: Novelirana ex-post analiza privrede Vojvodine (Novi Sad, 2006).

  82. 82.

    Vojvodina’s share in Serbia’s extraction of oil and gas is 98.50%.

  83. 83.

    Privredna komora Srbije [Chamber of Commerce of Serbia].

  84. 84.

    Republički zavod za statistiku.

  85. 85.

    Agencija za ekonomski razvoj Vojvodine, Ekonomsko ogledalo, April 2017.

  86. 86.

    See Chapter 3.

  87. 87.

    New York Times, A Different Yugoslavia, 8 Years Later, Takes Its Seat at the U.N, 2 November 2000.

  88. 88.

    Judy Batt, The EU’s New Borderlands (London: Centre for European Reform, 2003), p. 43.

  89. 89.

    Vojvodina CEES, “Sporazum o stabilizaciji i pridruživanju između Srbije i Evropske unije” (Novi Sad, 2010).

  90. 90.

    The events that led to the resignation of Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina’s government in 1988 were often referred to as the “yogurt revolution” as the protestors pelted cartons of yogurt at Vojvodina’s government building.

  91. 91.

    Nebojša Vladisavljević, Serbia’s Antibureaucratic Revolution: Milošević, the Fall of Communism and Nationalist Mobilization (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), pp. 174–175.

  92. 92.

    On the issue of the West Lothian question, see Daniel Gover and Michael Kenny. Devolution for England?: Historical, Constitutional and Political Dimensions of the West Lothian Question (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2018).

  93. 93.

    Each republic and autonomous province of the former Yugoslavia had its own League of Communists which were relatively independent party structures representing interests of their territories.

  94. 94.

    Daniele Conversi, “The Dissolution of Yugoslavia: Secession by the Centre?” in John Coakley, The Territorial Management of Ethnic Conflict (London: Frank Cass, 2003).

  95. 95.

    LSV film—20 godina LSV, video material.

  96. 96.

    LSV, Programska načela.

  97. 97.

    Nenad Čanak was beaten up in the street in July 1991 by two men in military uniforms; in November 1991 he was arrested, mobilized by the army and sent to the front-line in Vukovar, Croatia.

  98. 98.

    Ana Dević, Nationalism, Regional Multiculturalism and Democracy (Bonn: Center for European Integration Studies, 2002), p. 54.

  99. 99.

    Milena Putnik, “Ne dam novce”, AIM Press, 10 November 1995.

  100. 100.

    Milena Putnik, “Vojvodina ne zaboravlja”, interview with Nenad Čanak, AIM Press, 25 November 1995.

  101. 101.

    Ibid.

  102. 102.

    LSV, Teze o minimalnim pravima naroda Vojvodine u oblasti informisanja, upotrebe jezika i pisma, obrazovanja i kulture (Novi Sad, 1992).

  103. 103.

    LSV, Vojovdina Republika Put mira, razvoja i stabilnosti (Novi Sad, 1999).

  104. 104.

    Program Demokratske Stranke, 1990. In Zoran Lutovac (ed.), Ideologija i političke stranke u Srbiji. (Beograd: FPN, 2007), p. 252.

  105. 105.

    Support for autonomy is persistent in the post-2000 period. See Christina Isabel Zuber and Jelena Džankić, ‘Serbia and Montenegro. From Centralization to Secession and Multi-ethnic Regionalism’, in Arjan Schakel (ed.), Regional and National Elections in Eastern Europe: Territoriality of the Vote in Ten Countries (London: Palgrave, 2017), p. 228.

  106. 106.

    Quoted in Jovan Komšić, Dileme demokratske nacije i autonomije (Belgrade: Službeni glasnik, 2006), p. 161.

  107. 107.

    Daniel Bochsler, “Political parties in Serbia’s regions”, in Věra Stojarová and Jakub Šedo (eds.), Party Politics in the Western Balkans (London: Routledge, 2010).

  108. 108.

    Zakon o utvrđivanju određenih nadeležnosti autonomne pokrajine (Službeni list RS, 6/22).

  109. 109.

    Vojvodina u dobrom društvu, Slobodna Vojvodina, no. 56, 2010.

  110. 110.

    SANU protiv VANU, Politika 8 December 2008.

  111. 111.

    See the section on intergroup relations.

  112. 112.

    Interview, Jerkov 2 February 2009. Interview with Bojan Kostreš, the former Speaker of the Vojvodina’s Assembly, LSV party official, Novi Sad 17 August 2009. See also “Mađari u narodnjačkom bloku”, Politika, 17 November 2007.

  113. 113.

    See Dnevnik, 27th May 2005.

  114. 114.

    Kosta Čavoški, “Novi Ustav ili novi izbori”, Otadžbina No.2, Spring 2004, pp.10–11.

  115. 115.

    Jovan Komšić, “Identitet(i) Vojvođana u procesu tranzicije društva u Srbiji”, in Stanka Parać Damjanović (ed.), Ogledi o regionalizaciji (Subotica: Centar, 2005).

  116. 116.

    Mila Dragojević, “Contesting Ethnicity: Emerging Regional Identity in Vojvodina”, Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism: Vol. 8, No. 2, 2008, p. 304.

  117. 117.

    Ibid., p. 305.

  118. 118.

    This was confirmed by a number of inteviewees including Tatjana Pavlović Križanić, NALED, interview, Belgrade 25 January 2010 and Branislav Bugarski, Minister for Interegional Cooperation and Local Government, AP Vojvodina, Novi Sad, 25 February 2015.

  119. 119.

    “Proglašen Statut Vojvodine”, B92, http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2009&mm=12&dd=14&nav_category=11&nav_id=398104 (last accessed 19 May 2010).

  120. 120.

    Author’s notes.

  121. 121.

    In practice, the exact annual amount of transferred funds is disputed. The central state usually claims it is the 7% of total budgetary revenues, while the regionalists argue it is the 7% of total expenditure.

  122. 122.

    There are approximately 20,000 self-declared Bunjevci inhabiting mainly the areas around Vojvodina’s northern, second largest city of Subotica. See Table 5.1.

  123. 123.

    Such as Mijo Muić (Mujity) who initiated the formal procedure for the recognition of an autochthonous Bunjevac national minority in Hungary in 2006.

  124. 124.

    More on the case of Bunjevci, relations to Croatia , Serbia and Vojvodina, see Dejan. Stjepanović “Claimed Co-Ethnics and Kin-State Citizenship in Southeastern Europe.” Ethnopolitics 14, no. 2 (15 March 2015): 140–58.

  125. 125.

    Interview, Predrag Novikov, Director of the Office for European Affairs, AP of Vojvodina (member of the DS), Novi Sad, 12 February 2009.

  126. 126.

    http://rtv.rs/sr_ci/politika/pajtic:-statut-je-omogucio-brzi-razvoj-pokrajine_193226.html

  127. 127.

    From 2004 to 2016 elections for the Vojvodina Assembly were held by non-compensatory mixed electoral system, with 60 mandates in each round. This was subsituted by a proportional system based on the decision in 2014.

  128. 128.

    Pokrajinska izborna komisija—Izbori maj 2008.

  129. 129.

    Hungarians (34.99%), Serbs (27.85%), Bunjevci (10.87%) and Croats (10.43%) according to the 2002 census.

  130. 130.

    “Serbia | Country Report | Nations in Transit | 2016.” Accessed 1 May 2017. https://freedomhouse.org/report/nations-transit/2016/serbia

  131. 131.

    Zuber and Džankić (2017).

  132. 132.

    See the discussion on nesting orientalism in Chapter 3.

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  1. Politics & IR, School of Social Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK

    Dejan Stjepanović

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Stjepanović, D. (2018). Vojvodina in Serbia: The Politics of Multinational Regionalism. In: Multiethnic Regionalisms in Southeastern Europe. Comparative Territorial Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58585-1_5

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