Bálint Pásztor

He was first on the list "Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians – Dr Bálint Pásztor" in the Serbian parliamentary election of 25 October 2026, which won 34,755 votes (0.81%) with 8,135 of 8,392 polling stations counted; the latest CeSID and Ipsos projection gave it two seats.

Career

Born in Subotica, Pásztor studied law at the University of Belgrade (doctorate 2018). He directed the Pannon Invest consultancy in Subotica in 2004–2007 and has taught constitutional law at the Faculty of Economics and Judicial Law of the University Business Academy in Novi Sad since 2014, as associate professor since 2023. He joined the VMSZ in 2000, sat on the Hungarian National Council in 2002–2010 and became party vice-president in 2019. An MP since 2007, elected eight times and heading the VMSZ list since 2012, he presided over the Subotica city assembly in 2020–2024. After his father István Pásztor, VMSZ leader since 2008, died in October 2023, he became acting leader and was elected president in March 2024. On election night in 2026 he said the party had hoped for more, expected two or three seats and counted it a success that the VMSZ kept its representation in parliament.

Positions

Pásztor has argued for decentralising Serbia and for a Hungarian-majority district in northern Vojvodina while rejecting separatism, and in 2009 called NATO membership a step towards the European Union; from 2014 the VMSZ supported the governments led by the Serbian Progressive Party (Wikipedia). In May 2025 he said the VMSZ took part neither in the ruling party's rally in Niš nor in the student-led protest in Subotica, which he called "a party, a cooking contest" held without notifying the authorities; he said early elections would not ease tensions and called the erosion of teachers' authority the protests' greatest tragedy (Magyar Szó). The VMSZ campaigned openly for Viktor Orbán in Hungary's April 2026 election; afterwards Pásztor offered his resignation, which the party did not accept (444).

Controversies

After meeting Pásztor in April 2026, Hungary's prime minister-elect Péter Magyar said his government would review the use of Hungarian state support over the previous ten years and investigate abuses in postal voting, and that he would not accept media funded from Hungary and controlled by the VMSZ relaying Fidesz propaganda. Pásztor replied that postal voting could be examined, that the VMSZ had nothing to hide and had complied with Hungarian and Serbian law, and that transparency of support had always been natural for it (444).

Summarised automatically from the linked sources. Wikipedia · Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (VMSZ) · Magyar Szó · 444 · Szabad Magyar Szó · Magyar Szó

Photo: VMSZ, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons (cropped)