Foundation and early history The party was founded in 1994 in
Senta by
József Kasza and former members of the
Democratic Fellowship of Vojvodina Hungarians as a citizen group which in 1995 was registered as a political party. They participated in the
1997 parliamentary election in which they won 1.23% of the vote and 4 seats in the
National Assembly. In early 2000, it was one of the founding members of the
Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) which ousted the president
Slobodan Milošević later that year. In the
2000 parliamentary election they participated under the DOS coalition and the party won 6 seats in the parliament.
Post-Milošević era and leadership change From the early 2000s, they started promoting an idea to form a
Hungarian Regional Autonomy in the northern part of
Vojvodina. In the
2003 parliamentary election they ended up not passing the electoral threshold with 4.23% of the vote. In
2007 they participated alone and they won 1.3% of the vote and 3 seats in the parliament. They also participated in the
2004 provincial election in Vojvodina and the party won 8.50% of vote in the one-round voting system and was part of the ruling coalition in the Vojvodina provincial parliament. In the 2004 local elections, the party won the largest number of seats in the municipal parliaments of
Subotica,
Senta,
Bačka Topola,
Mali Iđoš,
Kanjiža (where
Reformists of Vojvodina won same number of seats) and
Čoka. In 2008, the party elected
István Pásztor as their new president while József Kasza remained as the honorary president until 2010, when his membership was revoked. In 2008, they participated in the
provincial election in Vojvodina,
local elections and
parliamentary election and they were a part of the
Hungarian Coalition which won 7% of the vote in the provincial election and 1.81% and 4 seats in the parliamentary election, while in
Kanjiža they won 50.91%, in
Senta 31.87%,
Bačka Topola 46.25%,
Mali Iđoš 37.18%, and
Bečej 29.63%. Since the introduction of the multi-party system in Serbia, the mayor of
Subotica was often from the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians. That has changed after local elections 2008, when
Democratic Party won the largest number of votes in this city.
Modern period In 2012, they participated in the
parliamentary election,
local elections,
provincial election and
presidential election. In the parliamentary election, they won 1.75% of the vote and 5 seats in the National Assembly, in
Novi Sad they won one seat while in
Subotica they won 22.52% of the vote, in the provincial election they won 5.83% of the vote and 7 seats, and in the presidential election, in the first round, Pásztor won 1.62% of the vote in the first round while in the second round he supported
Boris Tadić. Since the
2014 parliamentary election, they have been supporting the ruling
SNS-led coalition. In 2014 they won 2.1% of the vote and 6 seats in the parliament, in 2016 they won 1.5% of the vote and lost two seats and then in 2020 they won 2.23% of the vote and got 5 more seats in the parliament.
Bálint Pásztor was elected as leader of the VMSZ at a party convention in
Senta on 2 March 2024. The only candidate for the position, he received the support of 333 out of 335 delegates in attendance. == Political positions ==