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Yugoslavia Vojvodina
Vojvodina, the second province of the Serbian Republic,
occupied a much more favorable economic and geographic position
than Kosovo, but its political status was equally ambiguous in
the 1980s. This was emphasized in 1981, when ethnic Hungarians
demonstrated in support of the Kosovan nationalists. In 1987 the
president of Vojvodina rejected categorically Serbia's proposal
that provincial autonomy be repealed. In late 1988 mass proSerbian demonstrations orchestrated by Milosevic in Vojvodina
forced resignation of the Vojvodina provincial party presidium,
which was replaced by a pro-Serbian group. This move ensured
support for the recentralization amendments to the Serbian
constitution in 1989. In the Serbian presidential election of
1989, Milosevic received a strong majority in Vojvodina, but not
in Kosovo. Vojvodinian political leaders of the new regime firmly
supported amendment of the Serbian constitution and other proSerbian positions. The region had a history of relative stability
in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the border with neighboring
Hungary was tranquil. The ethnic Hungarian population was much
smaller (16 percent in 1991, down from 19 percent in 1981) than
the Albanian population of Kosovo; the nationality key, which
required balanced representation in party and state for the major
ethnic groups in Yugoslavia, did not apply to the ethnic
Hungarians in Vojvodina, but the province's relative prosperity
precluded major political unrest. In 1990 Hungarian activists
formed the Democratic Community of Vojrodina Hungarians (DCVH) to
advance cultural autonomy and eveutual self-rule for the
Hungarian Minority. Strongly backing a united Yugoslavia, the
DCVH advocated equal status for the Hungarian language and
publications in Vojvodina and restoration of autonomy for the
province rather than independence from Serbia.
Data as of December 1990
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