Becicherecu Mic

Becicherecu Mic (; or Kleinbetschkerek; ) is a commune in Timiș County, Romania. It is composed of a single village, Becicherecu Mic. It also included Dudeștii Noi until 2004, when it was split off to form a separate commune. Its name means "Small Becicherec", as opposed to the "Great Becicherec" (Becicherecu Mare in Romanian), located in Serbia and renamed Zrenjanin in 1946.

Location

Becicherecu Mic is located northwest of Timișoara, on the national road DN6 Timișoara–Sânnicolau Mare–Cenad. It is also connected to the Timișoara–Cenad railway, which passes to the south, with the Pescărețul Mic station.

It borders Dudeștii Noi to the east, Hodoni to the north, Săcălaz to the southeast, Beregsău Mare to the south, Iecea Mică and Iecea Mare to the west and Biled to the northwest. A hundred years later, in 1334, the parish of Pechkereky pays the Vatican the "papal tithe", a grant from believers to support armed action against pagans. During the Hungarian occupation, in 1462, the village is given to the Hagymásy family from Beregsău. In 1748, 24 Romanian families brought from Transylvania were also colonized here. The village was previously divided into four parts, although in recent decades the inhabitants have mixed: the "German bend" – towards the railway station, the "Serbian bend" – practically in the center of the village, the "Romanian bend" – around the Romanian church and the "Gypsy outskirts" or Chertiz, a group of specific houses, along with Serbs and Romanians.

{| class="toccolours"

! align="center" colspan="2" style="background:#ccccff;" | Census

! align="center" colspan="6" style="background:#ccccff;" | Ethnic composition

! Year !! Population !! Romanians !! Hungarians !! Germans !! Roma !! Ukrainians !! Serbs

| 1880 || 3,379 || 428 || 21 || 2,395 || – || – || 498

| 1890 || 3,687 || 403 || 25 || 2,651 || – || – || 562

| 1900 || 3,738 || 422 || 40 || 2,659 || – || – || 557

| 1910 || 3,666 || 421 || 95 || 2,531 || – || – || 546

| 1920 || 3,642 || 382 || 70 || 2,533 || – || – || –

| 1930 || 3,318 || 431 || 35 || 2,294 || 83 || – || 461

| 1941 || 3,098 || 436 || 20 || 2,142 || – || – || –

| 1956 || 2,564 || – || – || – || – || – || –

| 1966 || 2,693 || 1,544 || 12 || 734 || 69 || 68 || 250

| 1977 || 2,774 || 1,741 || 18 || 619 || 107 || 63 || 208

| 1992 || 2,316 || 1,913 || 26 || 94 || 98 || 53 || 125

| 2002 || 2,417 || 2,062 || 31 || 48 || 132 || 74 || 63

| 2011 || 2,853 || 2,382 || 43 || 33 || 80 || 40 || 51

| 2021 || 2,875 || 2,176 || 34 || 26 || 61 || 53 || 53

Politics and administration

The commune of Becicherecu Mic is administered by a mayor and a local council composed of 13 councilors. The mayor, Raimond-Ovidiu Rusu, from the Social Democratic Party, has been in office since 2012. As from the 2024 local elections, the local council has the following composition by political parties:

{| class="wikitable"

! colspan="2" | Party

! Seats

! colspan="8" | Composition

| style="background-color:" |

| Social Democratic Party || 8

| style="background-color:" |

| Save Romania Union || 2

| style="background-color:" |

| Alliance for the Union of Romanians || 1

| style="background-color:" |

| Social Liberal Humanist Party || 1

| style="background-color:" |

| National Liberal Party || 1

| style="background-color:" |

Economy

The economic activity is a consistent one, supported at local level by 223 firms active in fields such as agriculture, trade, production, software, construction and iron processing, among others.