István Bacskulin (; born 3 March 1958) is a Serbian politician from the country's Hungarian community. He was the mayor of Kanjiža from 1993 to 2000 and served in the Vojvodina provincial assembly from 1993 to 2004. From 2012 to 2016, he led the community government of Horgoš, a settlement in Kanjiža.
Private career Bacskulin is a viticulturist and a certified winemaker."A magyar önkormányzatok polgármesterjelöltjei", Hét Nap, 29 September 2004, accessed 25 June 2025. He is the grand master of the Saint Orbán Wine Knights in Horgoš, and in May 2025 he was the organizer of the 13th Hungarian National Wine Competition."Több mint kétszáz bort értékeltek", Magyar Szó, 14 May 2025, accessed 25 June 2025.
Politician Mayor (1993–2000) and Provincial Representative (1993–2004) Democratic Fellowship of Vojvodina Hungarians Serbia's first local elections after the country's de jure return to multi-party democracy in 1990 took place in May 1992. In Kanjiža, the Democratic Fellowship of Vojvodina Hungarians (VMDK), which was at the time the dominant party in Serbia's Hungarian community, did not participate in the election, and a large percentage of the municipality's majority Hungarian community boycotted the vote, giving the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) a victory on the basis of a relatively small turnout. When repeat elections took place in December 1992, the VMDK contested the vote and won a landslide victory with twenty-eight out of thirty-three seats. Bacskulin was elected as a VMDK candidate for a Horgoš constituency; when the new municipal assembly convened on 21 January 1993, he was chosen as its president, a position that was at the time equivalent to mayor.Magyar Szó, 22 December 1992, p. 7.Magyar Szó, 5 January 1993, p. 6.Magyar Szó, 22 January 1993, p. 7.
Bacskulin was also elected to the Vojvodina assembly in the December 1992 provincial election, which took place concurrently with the local vote. Running in Kanjiža's second division, he received 64.8% support in a race against two opponents.Magyar Szó, 15 December 1992, p. 6.Magyar Szó, 22 December 1992, p. 7. The governing Socialists won a plurality victory overall and remained in power for the term that followed.
In the 1993 Serbian parliamentary election, Bacskulin appeared in the twelfth position on the VMDK's electoral list for the Zrenjanin division, which included Kanjiža. The party won five seats in the division, and he was not awarded a mandate.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 19. и 26. децембра 1993. године и 5. јануара 1994. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (2 Зрењанин), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 19. и 26. децембра 1993. године и 5. јануара 1994. године – РЕЗУЛТАТИ ИЗБОРА (Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 19. и 26. децембра 1993. године и 5. јануара 1994. године), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024.Službeni Glasnik (Republike Srbije), Volume 50 Number 11 (25 January 1994), pp. 193-194. (From 1992 to 2000, Serbia's electoral law stipulated that one-third of parliamentary mandates would be assigned to candidates from successful lists in numerical order, while the remaining two-thirds would be distributed amongst other candidates at the discretion of the sponsoring parties.Guide to the Early Election , Ministry of Information of the Republic of Serbia, December 1992, made available by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, accessed 14 July 2017. It was common practice for the latter mandates to be awarded out of order. Bacskulin could have been awarded a mandate despite his list position, but this did not occur.)
Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians The VMDK experienced a serious split in 1994, with several of its leading members leaving to form the breakaway Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (VMSZ). Bacskulin was a founding member of the new party, which soon supplanted the VMDK as the dominant party in Serbia's Hungarian community. In the 1996 Serbian local elections in Kanjiža, an alliance of the VMSZ and the Reform Democratic Party of Vojvodina (RDSV) won twenty-four out of thirty-three seats, while the VMDK did not win any representation.Izbori Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova u Republici Srbiji, 1996, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, p. 52. Bacskulin was personally re-elected for the municipality's fourth division in the first round of voting and was chosen afterward for a second term as mayor.Magyar Szó, 30 October 1996, p. 5.Magyar Szó, 5 November 1996, p. 6.Magyar Szó, 8 December 1996, p. 6.
Bacskulin was also re-elected to the Vojvodina assembly in the 1996 provincial election, once again winning re-election for Kanjiža's second division in the first round of voting.Magyar Szó, 30 October 1996, p. 5.Magyar Szó, 5 November 1996, p. 6. The Socialist Party won a majority victory, and the VMSZ served in opposition for the term that followed.
In the 1997 Serbian parliamentary election, Bacskulin appeared in the second position on the VMSZ's electoral list for the smaller, redistributed Zrenjanin division. The party won a single seat in the division, which automatically went to its lead candidate, Mihály Szecsei.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (6 Зрењанин), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године – РЕЗУЛТАТИ ИЗБОРА (Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године (Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997.) године, , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024.
Toward the end of his mayoral term, Bacskulin said that his administration's greatest accomplishment was maintaining peace in Kanjiža during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. He added that his greatest challenge during eight years in office was preserving the local education system.Magyar Szó, 21 September 2000, p. 7.
In 2000, the VMSZ became part of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), a broad and ideologically diverse coalition of parties opposed to the authoritarian rule of SPS leader Slobodan Milošević. DOS candidate Vojislav Koštunica defeated Milošević in the 2000 Yugoslavian presidential election, and Milošević subsequently fell from power on 5 October 2000 against the backdrop of mass protests.
The VMSZ won a majority victory in Kanjiža in the 2000 Serbian local elections, which were held concurrently with the Yugoslavian vote, taking nineteen out of thirty-three seats.Izbori, 2000. Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, p. 39. Bacskulin was not personally re-elected, however; he was defeated by candidate of a local political group called the Producers of Horgoš, and his mayoral term ended when the new assembly convened.Magyar Szó, 14 September 2000, p. 9.Magyar Szó, 29 September 2000, p. 9.Magyar Szó, 20 October 2000, p. 5. This notwithstanding, he was elected to a third term in the Vojvodina assembly in the 2000 provincial election, again winning re-election for Kanjiža's second division in the first round. The combined forces of the DOS and VMSZ won a landslide majority victory overall, and Bacskulin served as a provincial deputy secretary of agriculture during the 2000–04 term."A magyar önkormányzatok polgármesterjelöltjei", Hét Nap, 29 September 2004, accessed 25 June 2025.
The Serbian government fell soon after Slobodan Milošević's defeat in the Yugoslavian election, and a new Serbian parliamentary election was held in December 2000. Prior to the vote, Serbia's electoral laws were reformed such that the entire country became a single division and all mandates were awarded to candidates on successful lists at the discretion of the sponsoring parties, irrespective of numerical order.Serbia's Law on the Election of Representatives (2000) stipulated that parliamentary mandates would be awarded to electoral lists (Article 80) that crossed the electoral threshold (Article 81), that mandates would be given to candidates appearing on the relevant lists (Article 83), and that the submitters of the lists were responsible for selecting their parliamentary delegations within ten days of the final results being published (Article 84). See Law on the Election of Representatives, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 35/2000, made available via LegislationOnline, , accessed 6 June 2021. The VMSZ participated in the election as part of the DOS alliance, and Bacskulin appeared in the 219th position out of 250 on its electoral list.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 23. децембра 2000. године и 10. јануара 2001. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (4 Демократска опозиција Србије – др Војислав Коштуница (Демократска странка, Демократска странка Србије, Социјалдемократија, Грађански савез Србије, Демохришћанска странка Србије, Нова Србија, Покрет за демократску Србију, Лига социјалдемократа Војводине, Реформска демократска странка Војводине, Коалиција Војводина, Савез војвођанских Мађара, Демократска алтернатива, Демократски центар, Нова демократија, Социјалдемократска унија, Санxачка демократска партија, Лига за Шумадију, Српски покрет отпора – Демократски покрет), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024. The list won a landslide majority with 176 seats, and he was not initially chosen for a mandate.PRVA KONSTITUTIVNA SEDNICA, 22.01.2001., Otvoreni Parlament, 11 January 2001, accessed 18 July 2021.
Bacskulin was awarded a parliamentary mandate under somewhat dubious circumstances on 12 June 2002. The DOS leadership invalidated the mandates of several delegates from the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), which had previously been one of the leading parties in the coalition but was by this time in the process of withdrawing from it. Bacskulin was one of the DOS candidates chosen for a replacement mandate."DSS napustio parlament", , Glas javnosti, 13 June 2002, accessed 11 February 2024. The DOS's actions were later invalidated on a legal technicality, and the DSS mandates were restored.Milan Milošević, "Mrtve duše živih poslanika", Vreme, 7 August 2002, accessed 11 February 2024.
The DOS later dissolved entirely, and the VMSZ contested the 2003 Serbian parliamentary election as part of a multi-party alliance called Together for Tolerance (ZZT). Bacskulin appeared in the sixteenth position on the coalition's list, which did not cross the electoral threshold for assembly representation.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 28. децембра 2003. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (12. ЗАЈЕДНО ЗА ТОЛЕРАНЦИЈУ - ЧАНАК, КАСА, ЉАЈИЋ), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024.
Since 2004 Serbia's local election laws were reformed prior to the 2004 local election cycle, such that mayors were directly elected and local assemblies were elected under a system of proportional representation. Bacskulin was nominated as the VMSZ's mayoral candidate in Kanjiža in 2004 and was defeated by Károly Körmöci of the Reformists of Vojvodina (RV) in the second round of voting. The direct election of mayors proved to be a short-lived experiment and was abolished with the 2008 local elections.