Identity Statement

Reference Code

HU OSA 305-0-5

Title

Recordings of the Opposition Roundtable Negotiations

Date(s)

1989

Description Level

Series

Extent and medium (processed)

48 VHS PAL, 1.2 linear meters
6 SVHS PAL, 0.15 linear meters

Context

Name of creator(s)

Fekete Doboz Alapítvány

Archival history

The series was digitized in 2020.

Content and Structure

Scope and Content (Abstract)

This series contains 121 hours of raw, uncut video recordings of the Opposition Roundtable (EKA) negotiations. The cameramen and editors of Black Box recorded the closed-door negotiations of opposition parties and organizations about the peaceful transition on VHS analog video cassettes.

Using the raw, unedited video documentation of the roundtable negotiations, Black Box Foundation has produced a five-part documentary film titled "Opposition Roundtable Negotiations in Hungary 1989". The film is archived and accessible under the series HU OSA 305-0-2.

The Opposition Roundtable was founded on March 22, 1989 with the goal to work out a joint standpoint. That joint standpoint of the opposition was to be crucial when the opposition held—within the framework of the National Roundtable (NKA)—negotiations with the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (MSZMP) that had been usurping total power for 41 years.

Scope and Content (Narrative)

According to its own definition, “[t]he founders of the Roundtable are independent opposition organizations seeking to establish popular sovereignty. They do not share in, and do not wish to share in, the privileges of power monopoly, nor do they form alliances with organizations that seek to do so. The participants of the Roundtable strive to harmonize their political work towards a democratic transformation of Hungary.” The organizations participating in the work of the Roundtable were the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF), the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), the Alliance of Young Democrats (FIDESZ), the Independent Smallhorders’ Party (FKgP), the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP), the Hungarian People’s Party (MNP), the Hungarian Social Democratic Party (MSZDP), the Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Society (BZST) and the Democratic League of Independent Trade Unions (FSZDL), the latter with observer status.

From June 13, 1989 onwards, negotiations with MSZMP took place within the institutional-organizational framework of the National Roundtable. The participants at these trilateral negotiations were MSZMP, the nine organizations forming the Opposition Roundtable, and the seven organizations that made up the so-called third side. The principal goal of the talks was to elaborate so-called cardinal laws to reshape the political system and the constitutional setup, as well as to introduce democratic legislation on basic rights in line with the principles of the rule of law. The laws on the amendment of the constitution, on the Constitutional Court, on the functioning and financing of political parties, on the election of the members of parliament, on the Criminal Code and on the modification of criminal procedure emerged from the debates within the working groups assisting the political negotiation process. The discussions that took place between June and September 1989 resulted in the agreement signed on September 18, 1989, based on which the Hungarian Republic was proclaimed on October 23, 1989.

It is little known that the EKA was not dissolved after the September 18 agreement. In fact, it met on nine further occasions until April 27, 1990. The minutes of forty-three meetings, as well as the audio recordings of sixteen sessions of the EKA document the proceedings of the meetings held in 1989, from the growth of the EKA’s negotiating position vis-à-vis the Power to the debates that led to the emergence of a joint position on the proposed bills, including—and especially—the amendment of the constitution. Of the forty-three meetings, three were held with foreign negotiating partners in attendance: The Opposition Roundtable was attended twice by the ambassador of the United States and once by the ambassador of the Soviet Union.

The crew of the Black Box Foundation recorded most of the proceedings of the EKA in the form of so-called video-minutes. It is a historical fact that—in the initial phase—five meetings were not recorded on video camera. These discussions are documented in summary minutes. The minutes of meetings following September 18, 1989 have been written based on the audio cassettes kept by the Alliance of Free Democrats. The partial transcripts and the minutes of the meetings of the National Roundtable (at plenary, mid-level and working group level), have been transferred to the Hungarian National Library in 1997 (MOL P. 2117., boxes 1-13), following the 1996 recommendation of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information on the publicity of these documents (Recommendation 466/A/1996).

In 1997, the Minister of Culture and Education declared the video recordings made and owned by Black Box Foundation protected archival material. Their archival identifier is HU-MNL-OL-P 2117.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information

Digitization and cataloging planned for 2020.

Accruals

Not Expected

Conditions of Access and Use

Conditions governing access

Not Restricted

Languages

Hungarian

Description Control

Archivist's note

Arranged by Judit Krausz, described by Zsuzsa Zádori based on a publication by Dr. Béla Révész, 2020.