Motto: "Before becoming history and even before taking place, a lot of major events are prepared in laboratories" As expected, UDMR (the Democrat Union of Hungarians in Romania) is going too far on all sides. After studying the predictable election results, Marko Bela's party set assault on potential coalition partners in due time. The rest was something merely conventional. Yesterday, for instance, UDMR leaders adopted strategy, they say. Apart from well - meaning statements, what are the real conditions of UDMR, what does the party rely on and what do its partners and adversaries have to do? As for the claims of UDMR, what can get changed about the future ruling coalition? Before taking it up, we need to mention some things. UDMR was founded under stormy conditions. And it was greatly opposed to, by the PSD (the Social - Democrat Party) ascendants as well. UDMR has generally been provided with constant help by right- center parties. They had a partnership for a rather long while, actually till 2000. A long series of difficulties on the UDMR agenda had been resolved by 2000, especially in 1996 - 2000. They presently reached political alliance with PSD and it lasted four years. This way they obtained other legitimate rights for the "large" Magyar "minority" that has lived along with the Romanians for hundred years now. Some more legitimate claims are still to be found solution to. One of them is certainly a state university teaching in Hungarian. But apart from sensible things, there is also what I would elegantly call inertia. And there are also some claims that no political partner would normally meet, since they can lead to discriminating the majority. They can also touch upon national sovereignty, as well as they might turn Romanian economy fragile so that this would favor Hungary, but not the Magyar community. Hungary is a friend state that can still turn into rival in some trade disputes. Despite its well - meaning statements, in the last two years UDMR has become more fragile. And in a way it was on the verge of dissolution. An autonomous group was created inside the Magyar community and it had and still has two dimensions. One refers to an organization with higher level of autonomy as related to groups of business interests. Numerous leading members of UDMR are now deeply involved in such things, which would unavoidably lead to more political autonomy in reaching decisions favorable to the Magyar community. The second dimension touches upon extremism, that is a type of nationalism breaking European norms and able to jeopardize the stability and firmness of the Romanian - Magyar partnership. A regrettable calculation error committed by the UDMR "rebels" made them seek popularity and promote extremist and dangerous projects such as the independent county of the Secui people (ethnic minority living in Transylvania), for instance. This is the point where they lost. What could have become a sort of "UDMR spring" turned into extremism. For the time being, the Magyar community has wasted the chance to reform UDMR and replace at least some of the UDMR barons with new people. Apart from pragmatism about to turn into greed, these new people will also bring the idealism that would satisfy common Hungarians. But PSD has strongly supported UDMR so that the latter would avoid danger. Had there not been for PSD, UDMR could have got split and therefore none of the parts would have made it to the Parliament. But Romanian democracy still needed an ethnic party, just as PSD needed an ally so that today they would be able to play on two fields at the same time. As for the civil society, it had to choose one of the two evil things and it tacitly helped UDMR. Coming back to the main point, we are to say that at present UDMR is in all cards and is exaggerating too much. Marko Bela informed that in the next electoral cycle they would no longer have partnership, but alliance with view to ruling. This is just normal. But in the same time UDMR is after local autonomy. Unless this concept is well defined, it can seriously harm Romanian's national security, even if we join EU and even if the sovereignty of all EU members is limited by Constitution. And at last there is also the fact that UDMR is pleading for an initiative of the Opposition in Budapest, that of double citizenship for Magyars living abroad. This is obviously a far- fetched and dangerous claim, not to call it shameless. But both the official and unofficial claims of UDMR for potential allies are so exaggerated that they become unacceptable. Is this by any chance the reason why foreign power brokers urge us to try a form of large coalition? Can there by any chance be external, but not internal coalition with UDMR? That is in the Opposition, together with PRM ("Great Romania" Party).

Sorin ROSCA STANESCU