Hungary–Slovakia relations
Encyclopedia
Hungary–Slovakia relations are the foreign relations
between the Republic of Hungary
and the Slovak Republic
, two neighbouring countries in Central Europe
. The countries established diplomatic relations in 1993, the year when Slovakia became independent of Czechoslovakia
. Hungary has an embassy in Bratislava
. Pozsony in Hungarian, Bratislava served as Hungary's capital during the Ottoman wars. Slovakia has an embassy
in Budapest
and a general consulate in Békéscsaba
.
Both countries are full members of NATO and of the European Union
. They share 676 kilometres (420 mi) of common borders. There are approximately 520,000 persons of Hungarian descent living in Slovakia (about 9.7% of its population) and around 39,266 persons of Slovak descent living in Hungary (about 0.38% of its population).According to 2001 Hungarian census There have been frequent if minor diplomatic conflicts between the two countries.
. By 896, Hungarian Tribes established Hungary with the entire Carpathian Mountain range as its borders and included the Pannonian Basin
, including the western portions of Great Moravia.
The Czech National Revival
in the neighbouring Austrian lands significantly affected Slovak national sentiment, and use of the Slovak language
which was being encroached upon by nationally sanctioned dominance of Hungarian
. Following World War I
, areas designated by the Allied states (predominantly France
, in defiance of Woodrow Wilson
's Fourteen Points
) which called for plebiscites, Northern Hungary was ceded to the newly established Czechoslovakia
, according to the Treaty of Trianon
(1920). The arrangement left a sizeable Hungarian population residing on the territory of Slovakia and a much smaller Slovak minority in Hungary. The Hungarian Soviet Republic
subsequently attempted to retake Hungarian portions of Czechoslovakia, but was defeated
by a Czechoslovak-Romanian coalition.
destroyed.
Hungarians (and other minorities e.g. Germans and Rusyns
) were thus not present in the constituent assembly and had no influence on the new Czechoslovak constitution. It nevertheless, on paper at least, guaranteed minority rights and the use of minority languages in educational system and local representation. In practice, however, this egalitarianism was never realized as thousands of Hungarians and Germans were forced off their lands, imprisoned, or their property confiscated
Due to gerrymandering
the Hungarians had a diminished level of representation in the National Assembly and their influence on the politics of Czechoslovakia remained limited. The same factors also limited the Slovak intelligentsia
's political power.
Hungarians in Czechoslovakia during and after World War II
During the World War II
era, Hungary regained Hungarian-populated areas of Slovakia under the First Vienna Award
of 1938. These territories were returned to Czechoslovakia when Hungary was defeated at the conclusion of World War II Treaty of Paris
(with the exception of Carpathian Ruthenia
which was annexed to the Soviet Union
).
In 1995 the Slovak language law
came into force, which demanded that civil servants speak it and imposed fines on the use of foreign languages on public documents or in broadcasting without a translation into the state language. National minorities were exempt from several of its provisions. The sections about the fines were later deemed unconstitutional by the Slovak constitutional court and henceforth abolished in 1999. In 2009, the Slovak Language Law made the use of the minority language in official communication punishable in towns and villages where the ethnic community now made up less than 20 percent of the total population. All documentation of minority schools should be duplicated in the state language. The law stipulates that the names of streets and buildings anywhere in Slovakia must be stated in the Slovak language [despite 1100-year-old tradition] and it also introduces sanctions of up to €5,000 ($7,000) on those who break rules promoting the use of Slovak in public and for municipalities and public offices for not using the Slovak language "properly."
Since both Slovakia and Hungary were aspiring for EU membership at the time, in 1995 Hungarian prime minister Gyula Horn
along with his Slovak counterpart Vladimír Mečiar were pressured into signing a bilateral treaty. This treaty included measures for guaranteeing the minority rights for both countries and also a pledge not to consider the treatment of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia as an internal affair and vice versa. This last provision has been subsequently ignored by Vladimír Mečiar's and Robert Fico's administration as well. Mečiar even suggested a complete population exchange at a bilateral negotiation with Horn in 1997.
, a Hungarian student from Horné Mýto
, Slovakia, made claims of being physically assaulted in a hate crime
incident. Malina claims she was severely beaten and robbed on 25 August 2006 in Nitra
after speaking Hungarian
in public. She claims her attackers wrote "SK [abbreviation for Slovakia] without parasites" , and "Hungarians to the other side of the Danube" on her clothes. Upon investigation of the incident by Slovak Police, Malina was accused of making misleading statements to the police and has been charged with perjury
. In December 2007, Slovak police released a video tape of the initial hearing to Malina's lawyers, who are now claiming irregularities in the way the interview had been conducted. Malina has taken her case to the European Court of Human Rights
, challenging what she terms the "inhumane and humiliating" conduct of Slovak officials.
has proposed a law that would grant compensation by "moral and financial means" for Hungarians harmed by the Beneš decrees
of former Czechoslovakia
. This compensation was to consist of a fund that would be available to the Hungarian community is Slovakia by various means. A similar fund exists to compensate the Germans and the Jews for the wrongdoings of 1939-47. Differences between the two cases exist, and Slovaks claimed the analogy is weak. Despite the historic record, Slovaks argue Hungarians were never expelled (as were the Germans
), nor exterminated in death camps (as were the Jews). All ethnically Slovak members voted to confirm the decrees; Hungarian leaders voted against them. The then Hungarian President László Sólyom
said the decision was unacceptable and that it would put a strain on Hungarian-Slovak relations.
was disrupted by Slovak riot police after only 15 minutes injuring more than 60 people, many of whom lost consciousness or suffered injuries including concussion and broken jaws. Local policemen stormed Hungarian nationals, who were at the game to support the home team and to protest the burning of a Hungarian flag at an earlier game. flags with Árpád stripes, favoured by the extreme right in Hungary, were being waved and the home crowd sang the Hungarian national anthem before kickoff.
Press reports from the scene said that the police failed to act against Bratislava supporters who were throwing smoke bombs, noise grenades and other missiles on the pitch. Based on videos posted on the internet showing the incident from various angles the supporters were not doing anything that would warrant such an intervention by police. Five days after the game the Slovak police presented a photo as evidence, showing one of the supporters raising his fist to throw a punch, but police officers can not be seen on the image. Spontaneous demonstrations were held in Budapest
at the embassy and the consulate of Slovakia on the night of the incident. Protesters lit candles to honor the victims and burned a Slovak flag.
delivered a campaign speech in Esztergom
, Hungary on May 23, 2009, two weeks before the 2009 European elections, in which he wondered how many MEPs will represent the Hungarians from the Carpathian Basin.Most Hungarian people live scattered across the whole Carpathian Basin and have become separated by state borders due to the Treaty of Trianon
of 1920. (This geographical region, the traditional area of the Kingdom of Hungary
, includes areas of Romania
, Slovakia
, Serbia
, Ukraine
, Croatia
and Austria
.) The governing coalition of Slovakia condemned the move.
In 2009 the Slovak parliament passed a language law, mandating preferential use of the state language – Slovak
. Use of a non-state language in state institutions (local government, hospital, police) by citizens interacting with it could carry a financial penalty. The law does not interfere with private use of minority languages.
, the Hungarian Prime Minister, has charged Slovakia of scapegoating Hungarian speakers.
According to the Hungarian standpoint, depriving a local government from its right to ensure making any minority language use at windows possible if ratio of that minority on the settlement was under 10% was unacceptable, only relieving them from an obligation to ensure that would be acceptable by European standards under any percentage. Prohibiting to use it in hospitals, or making it illegal for a postman to hand over a monthly pension if the pensioner can only acknowledge in Hungarian that she is currently receiving her monthly pension was considered endangering basic human rights.The Government of Hungary turned to the EU institutions to request the law from Slovakia in, analize it according to the requirements of EU treaties and conventions and nullify any points they find contradicting them.
The leaders of EU stated that national legislation is under the authority of member nation states, and while EU was founded in order to avert conflicts and solve it in it, bilateral relations doesn't have to take place in the European Parliament. Yet according to request the procedure of checking the conformity of the law the EU institutions naturally start.
Some members of the Government of Hungary during interviews expressed their expectation from older members states to make their presence felt not only when their economic expansion can be achieved, but when there are problems, and try to investigate problems and get informed about marginally known territory when that is necessary.
After the EU handed over the list it found in breach with regulation accepted by Slovakia by being a member the Government told the press it will keep its attention on the process of the modifications and will report again if the result after deadline it considers unsatisfactory.
compared the creation of the language law to the politics of the Ceauşescu
regime on the use of language. The dual standards for Czech language
usage in Slovakia has been questioned with Slovak authorities even considering a ban, however this charge ignores the mutual intelligibility
between Czech and Slovak, which render them compatible in business and law.
Opponents have described the law as one that "criminalises the use of Hungarian", According to OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities
Knut Vollebæk
the language law complies with international law and Slovakia's international obligations. The Party of the Hungarian Coalition (MKP
) asked the Slovak Government to release communication exchanged between them and Vollebæk so that the opinion of Vollebæk regarding the law could not be misrepresented or distorted. According to the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs the report was released unchanged and in full. Spokesman Peter Stano stated: "It is obvious that the Party of the Hungarian Coalition
was unable to question the reliability of Vollebæk report, that law is following the legitimate goal and it's in accordance with all international norms." Vollebaek will monitor the situation until the law on minority language use will reach the level of the state language law.
The American Hungarian Federation (AHF), the largest Hungarian-American umbrella organization in the United States, has repeatedly called attention to what it calls an "unacceptable" law that is "inconsistent with Slovakia’s freely assumed obligations, Western values, democratic principles and the international norms to which Slovakia as a member of the OSCE has committed itself." AHF sees a discriminatory and ill-advised language law as the latest manifestation of the intolerance toward the Hungarian minority by certain segments of Slovakia’s political elite now in office. It notes additional human and minority rights issues such as the gerrymandering of the administrative division of Slovakia so that Hungarians are in the minority in the administrative regions; adopting a resolution proposed by extremist Jan Slota ratifying and confirming the Benes decrees (which imposed collective guilt on Hungarians and continue to adversely affect them); and refusing to rehabilitate Janos Esterhazy, who as leader of the Hungarian Party in Tiso’s Fascist Slovakia was the only Member of Parliament to vote against the deportation of Jews in 1942, yet who died in a Czechoslovak prison after the war.
Minorities lacked national treatment during the communist times. Marxism defined nationalism, mythic symbology, irrational allocation of resources for artistic reasons and language as enemies of the masses. Mythic, middle-ages symbology and labour-allocation for details on swords etc. was described as producing opium, sold by the feudal lords. Different languages constituted barriers among people and nationalism was used to make people think the feudal lords were defending them from conquest and national assimilation, a death in spirit. According to Marx in reality they defended the form of exploitation, 'nation', by presenting exploiters as defenders. Territorial changes were just replacing exploiter feudal lords. The savior-picture of nobles defending peasants from armies of enemy nobles and the language barriers prevented people from recognizing and uniting against their common oppressor. Russian language and Soviet culture was promoted, even from Hungarian history only peasant-rebels, folk-poets and Republican revolutioners were promoted. No national cultural life was supported. This resulted in remaining Slovaks feeling themselves deprived from their national identity.
According to Slovak historian Ladislav Deák, during communist rule in Hungary, most of the Slovak minority who did not emigrate were stripped of their Slovak identity. Jenő Kaltenbach, Hungarian ex-ombudsman for national minorities and president of the German Minority Self-Government in Hungary, said that "minorities in Hungary, without exception, are on edge of abyss of their identity", "the national minorities were practically assimilated and action programs for them are just an illusion". He also said that the Hungarian minority language law is "nice to hear, but full of unrealised law norms".
, planned a visit to the Slovak city of Révkomárom/Komárno
to unveil a statue commemorating Saint Stephen of Hungary. The day of the visit, August 21 coincided with the date of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
, of which Hungary was a participant, and it is one day after the national celebration of the foundation of the Hungarian state (August 20). The Slovak government labelled the timing deliberate provocation, and questioned the president's refusal to meet with Slovak delegates. The Slovak government issued a one-day travel ban in response, and manned the bridge with policemen to prevent rioting. Sólyom did not enter Slovakia. The government of Hungary called the ban "unfounded" and "unacceptable". Hungary plans to lodge a complaint with the EU, however, according to der Standard
, the European Commission
does not want to concern itself with the case.
s were thrown at the Slovak embassy in Budapest, causing no casualties as the flammable fluids did not ignite or detonate. Authorities condemned the attack. The foreign ministry of Slovakia stated they view the incident with great concern, but at the same time "it is seen as an isolated criminal offence".
the far-right Slovak National Party (SNS) became a small part of the governing coalition. Ján Slota
, chairman of SNS is known for anti-Hungarian sentiment. Der Spiegel
and various international media outlets have reported Slota as saying “The Hungarians are a tumor in the body of the Slovak nation.” He also threatened to send tanks to "flatten Budapest" should Slovakia's Hungarian minority, once the ruling class and still about 10 percent of the country's population today, attempt to teach the Slovaks "the Lord's Prayer in Hungarian" once again. Slota also called Hungarians the descendants of "ugly, bow-legged, Mongoloid characters on disgusting horses".
has been engaging in historical revisionism in the government's update of the national curriculum. Slovak political scientist Miroslav Kusý
claims that by adopting such scientifically questionable rhetoric Fico aims to "strengthen national consciousness by the falsification of history". It is not known whether this issue has affected relations between the states.
The Slovak National Party has sidelined a long-planned joint textbook with Hungary and is promoting instead a Slovak-centred view of the country’s patchwork past.
voted to give the ethnic Hungarians living in other countries the right to claim Hungarian citizenship without requiring them to live in Hungary. The only requirements are a Hungarian ancestry and a command of Hungarian.
The purpose of the government MEPs was reunification of the nation according to their own evaluation of who is in need of being granted simplified process of citizenship. The requirements were eased as address in Hungary was not required anymore.
Slovak political force condemned the move and initiated a law that makes a person lose their Slovak citizenship if they take up another in order to discourage them from doing that. The Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico
called the proposed reforms a threat to national security. In response to the passage of the Hungarian nationality law reform Slovakia altered its own citizenship law, stripping Slovak citizenship from any Slovak citizen who applies for another citizenship (not applicable if naturalisation procedure is initiated by another states' authorities); in effect highly restricting its recognition of dual citizenship.
Radical Slovak politician Jan Slota stated that as many Hungarians live on both side of the Danube, the next step by them after getting their citizenship can be the demand of being annexed back to Hungary. For this reason he considered his and others' fears justified, and told the press he obviously doesn't accuse Slovaks living in Australia to have the intention of annexing it to Australia, but with Hungary they believe their fear has rational bases.
On 31 May 2010 the Hungarian Parliament declared June 4, the day on which Hungary signed the Treaty of Trianon
in 1920, the day of national unity. The bill was criticized by opposition members, former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány wrote in his blog 'The law wants to heal the injuries of Trianon but only makes new ones.' The bill was voted by 302 representatives (55 rejected, 12 abstained) and it states that:" Every member and community of the Hungarians,who are forced to live under several foreign authorities, is a part of the unified Hungarian nation, whom unity above all state borders is a reality, moreover it is an important element of the individual and universal self-identity of every Hungarian."
'For Slovakia the Treaty of Trianon bears a historical importance' ,Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic reacted on the new bill.'It is a valid document, which was accepted by every signatory's own will. It must be obeyed, its purposes and consequences must not be questioned!' Gasparovic expressed fears that the new Hungarian government and Parliament wants to make a change in foreign policy and wants a revision of the treaty.
The second Orbán Government didn't announce such change which would have been a deviation of the long-term political strategy accepted in the early 1990s, which was the former Orbán Government's strategy also. Hungary at the beginning of the 1990s accepted a constant foreign political strategy of pushing through negotiations and by diplomacy in international organizations for equal treatment of minorities and trying to make sure level of treatment doesn't drop in surrounding states while acknowledging she has no right to interfere with their legislation which is their sovereignty. Hungary has also expressed several times - also in this very bill - that it does not seek any territorial revision{. Seeking it would endanger peace and would most probably end its membership in EU and NATO.
According to an opinion piece by Slovakborn to a Slovak mother and a Czech father in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia journalist Martin M. Šimečka the law resembles the Russian policy of granting citizenship to the inhabitants of the Georgian region of South Ossetia
prior to the war of 2008, in which the Russian forces claimed to be protecting new Russian citizens on the Georgian territory. (Note: both Hungary and Slovakia are European Union and NATO members.)
The Hungarian step triggered tensions between the two countries, and sparked an angry response from Slovakia. Slovakia strongly opposes the plan. Slovakia itself allowed dual citizenship at the time, and allowed a limited right of return
for ethnic Slovaks (see Slovak nationality law
).
Of Hungary's neighbours, only Slovakia has objected to the move.
Gašparovič
opposed erecting a sculpture in János Esterházy
’s memory in Kosice
, saying that the one-time deputy had been a follower of Hitler and fascism
. He also opposed Ferdinand Ďurčanský
's sculpture in that case. The president said the Hungarian ethnic politician and martyr was a supporter of Nazism
. In fact Esterházy had been the only member of the Slovak parliament
to vote against anti-Jewish laws in 1942. The one-time deputy had always rejected both fascism and communism, suffered in the Gulag and died in a Moravian prison in 1957.
Hungary’s Foreign Ministry the next day rejected Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic’s statement and said that the ideology reflected in the statement did not contribute to the development of bilateral relations. The ministry “notes with regret and incomprehension” that issues surrounding the martyred count are in the focus of daily Slovak politics, the ministry said. The achievements of Esterházy are recognised in many countries including Israel
, the statement noted. Marek Trubac, the Slovak president’s spokesman, told MTI
that Esterházy is considered a war criminal in Slovakia, “for supporting fascist ideology”. Though Esterházy did vote against the anti-Jewish bills, he also welcomed (former Hungarian regent) Horthy’s “fascist troops” that occupied Kosice, the spokesman added.
Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén
said he was appalled by Gasparovic’s statement. He said that Esterházy “heroically exercised the virtues” and was all along committed to the teachings of the Catholic Church, so it is not by chance that his beatification
is under way. Semjén called the attack on Esterházy’s memory an insult to the Hungarian nation and the Catholic Church and a violation of universal human rights.
Hungarian President Pál Schmitt
said "it is unacceptable that János Esterházy, this true democrat and humanist, still qualifies as a war criminal in Slovakia". The president noted that the Hungarian government and his predecessors had repeatedly initiated Esterházy’s rehabilitation. Schmitt closed the letter with the hope that his forthcoming meeting with Gašparovič in Budapest would focus on the two countries’ common values.
International relations
International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...
between the Republic of Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and the Slovak Republic
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, two neighbouring countries in Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
. The countries established diplomatic relations in 1993, the year when Slovakia became independent of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. Hungary has an embassy in Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
. Pozsony in Hungarian, Bratislava served as Hungary's capital during the Ottoman wars. Slovakia has an embassy
Diplomatic mission
A diplomatic mission is a group of people from one state or an international inter-governmental organisation present in another state to represent the sending state/organisation in the receiving state...
in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
and a general consulate in Békéscsaba
Békéscsaba
Békéscsaba is a city in Southeast Hungary, the capital of the county Békés.- Geography :According to the 2001 census, the city has a total area of .- Name :...
.
Both countries are full members of NATO and of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
. They share 676 kilometres (420 mi) of common borders. There are approximately 520,000 persons of Hungarian descent living in Slovakia (about 9.7% of its population) and around 39,266 persons of Slovak descent living in Hungary (about 0.38% of its population).According to 2001 Hungarian census There have been frequent if minor diplomatic conflicts between the two countries.
History
Slavs arrived to the Western Carpathians in the 6th century. In the early 9th century most of the Western Carpathians belonged to Great MoraviaGreat Moravia
Great Moravia was a Slavic state that existed in Central Europe and lasted for nearly seventy years in the 9th century whose creators were the ancestors of the Czechs and Slovaks. It was a vassal state of the Germanic Frankish kingdom and paid an annual tribute to it. There is some controversy as...
. By 896, Hungarian Tribes established Hungary with the entire Carpathian Mountain range as its borders and included the Pannonian Basin
Pannonian Basin
The Pannonian Basin or Carpathian Basin is a large basin in East-Central Europe.The geomorphological term Pannonian Plain is more widely used for roughly the same region though with a somewhat different sense - meaning only the lowlands, the plain that remained when the Pliocene Pannonian Sea dried...
, including the western portions of Great Moravia.
The Czech National Revival
Czech National Revival
Czech National Revival was a cultural movement, which took part in the Czech lands during the 18th and 19th century. The purpose of this movement was to revive Czech language, culture and national identity...
in the neighbouring Austrian lands significantly affected Slovak national sentiment, and use of the Slovak language
Slovak language
Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
which was being encroached upon by nationally sanctioned dominance of Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
. Following World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, areas designated by the Allied states (predominantly France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, in defiance of Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
's Fourteen Points
Fourteen Points
The Fourteen Points was a speech given by United States President Woodrow Wilson to a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918. The address was intended to assure the country that the Great War was being fought for a moral cause and for postwar peace in Europe...
) which called for plebiscites, Northern Hungary was ceded to the newly established Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, according to the Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...
(1920). The arrangement left a sizeable Hungarian population residing on the territory of Slovakia and a much smaller Slovak minority in Hungary. The Hungarian Soviet Republic
Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Hungarian Soviet Republic or Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived Communist state established in Hungary in the aftermath of World War I....
subsequently attempted to retake Hungarian portions of Czechoslovakia, but was defeated
Hungarian–Romanian War of 1919
The seeds of the Hungarian–Romanian war of 1919 were planted when the union of Transylvania with Romania was proclaimed, on December 1, 1918. In late March 1919, the Bolsheviks came to power in Hungary, at which point its army attempted to retake Transylvania, commencing the war. By its final...
by a Czechoslovak-Romanian coalition.
Hungarians in Czechoslovakia in 1920-1938
Immediately after its foundation, strong anti-Hungarian sentiment manifested in Czechoslovakia. The Elisabeth Science University was disbanded, and many historical monuments representing the Austro-Hungarian EmpireAustria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
destroyed.
Hungarians (and other minorities e.g. Germans and Rusyns
Rusyns
Carpatho-Rusyns are a primarily diasporic ethnic group who speak an Eastern Slavic language, or Ukrainian dialect, known as Rusyn. Carpatho-Rusyns descend from a minority of Ruthenians who did not adopt the use of the ethnonym "Ukrainian" in the early twentieth century...
) were thus not present in the constituent assembly and had no influence on the new Czechoslovak constitution. It nevertheless, on paper at least, guaranteed minority rights and the use of minority languages in educational system and local representation. In practice, however, this egalitarianism was never realized as thousands of Hungarians and Germans were forced off their lands, imprisoned, or their property confiscated
Due to gerrymandering
Gerrymandering
In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected districts...
the Hungarians had a diminished level of representation in the National Assembly and their influence on the politics of Czechoslovakia remained limited. The same factors also limited the Slovak intelligentsia
Intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
's political power.
Hungarians in Czechoslovakia during and after World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
During the World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
era, Hungary regained Hungarian-populated areas of Slovakia under the First Vienna Award
First Vienna Award
The First Vienna Award was the result of the First Vienna Arbitration, which took place at Vienna's Belvedere Palace on November 2, 1938. The Arbitration and Award were direct consequences of the Munich Agreement...
of 1938. These territories were returned to Czechoslovakia when Hungary was defeated at the conclusion of World War II Treaty of Paris
Paris Peace Treaties, 1947
The Paris Peace Conference resulted in the Paris Peace Treaties signed on February 10, 1947. The victorious wartime Allied powers negotiated the details of treaties with Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland .The...
(with the exception of Carpathian Ruthenia
Carpathian Ruthenia
Carpathian Ruthenia is a region in Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast , with smaller parts in easternmost Slovakia , Poland's Lemkovyna and Romanian Maramureş.It is...
which was annexed to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
).
The controversy about the Gabčíkovo - Nagymaros Dams
1993 - 1998
The relations were strained from the very beginning of Slovakia's existence as an independent state in 1993 due to Hungary's refusal to sign the treaty declaring inviolability of the mutual boundaries and also because Hungary declared its intent to interfere into Slovak internal affairs with the objective of Hungarian minority protection, which was perceived as unacceptable in Slovakia.In 1995 the Slovak language law
Language law of Slovakia
The state language law of Slovakia fixes the status and regulates the use of the Slovak language. It took force in 1995 and underwent a major amendment in 2009....
came into force, which demanded that civil servants speak it and imposed fines on the use of foreign languages on public documents or in broadcasting without a translation into the state language. National minorities were exempt from several of its provisions. The sections about the fines were later deemed unconstitutional by the Slovak constitutional court and henceforth abolished in 1999. In 2009, the Slovak Language Law made the use of the minority language in official communication punishable in towns and villages where the ethnic community now made up less than 20 percent of the total population. All documentation of minority schools should be duplicated in the state language. The law stipulates that the names of streets and buildings anywhere in Slovakia must be stated in the Slovak language [despite 1100-year-old tradition] and it also introduces sanctions of up to €5,000 ($7,000) on those who break rules promoting the use of Slovak in public and for municipalities and public offices for not using the Slovak language "properly."
Since both Slovakia and Hungary were aspiring for EU membership at the time, in 1995 Hungarian prime minister Gyula Horn
Gyula Horn
Gyula Horn is a Hungarian politician and the third Prime Minister of the Republic of Hungary, from 1994–1998....
along with his Slovak counterpart Vladimír Mečiar were pressured into signing a bilateral treaty. This treaty included measures for guaranteeing the minority rights for both countries and also a pledge not to consider the treatment of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia as an internal affair and vice versa. This last provision has been subsequently ignored by Vladimír Mečiar's and Robert Fico's administration as well. Mečiar even suggested a complete population exchange at a bilateral negotiation with Horn in 1997.
The Malina controversy
Hedvig MalinaHedvig Malina
Hedvig Malina is an ethnic Hungarian student from Horné Mýto , Slovakia, who was physically assaulted allegedly in a hate crime incident. Her case represents a highly controversial and debated issue of Hungarian-Slovak relations.-Claim of violence:...
, a Hungarian student from Horné Mýto
Horné Mýto
Horné Mýto is a village and municipality in the Dunajská Streda District in the Trnava Region of south-west Slovakia.- Demography :At the 2001 Census the recorded population of the village was 969 while an end-2008 estimate by the Statistical Office had the villages's population as 981...
, Slovakia, made claims of being physically assaulted in a hate crime
Hate crime
In crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or...
incident. Malina claims she was severely beaten and robbed on 25 August 2006 in Nitra
Nitra
Nitra is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley of the river Nitra. With a population of about 83,572, it is the fifth largest city in Slovakia. Nitra is also one of the oldest cities in Slovakia and the country's earliest political and cultural center...
after speaking Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
in public. She claims her attackers wrote "SK [abbreviation for Slovakia] without parasites" , and "Hungarians to the other side of the Danube" on her clothes. Upon investigation of the incident by Slovak Police, Malina was accused of making misleading statements to the police and has been charged with perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
. In December 2007, Slovak police released a video tape of the initial hearing to Malina's lawyers, who are now claiming irregularities in the way the interview had been conducted. Malina has taken her case to the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
, challenging what she terms the "inhumane and humiliating" conduct of Slovak officials.
Confirmation of the Beneš decrees
In the summer of 2007, Party of the Hungarian CoalitionParty of the Hungarian Coalition
The Party of the Hungarian Coalition, officially registered under the compound name Strana maďarskej koalície – Magyar Koalíció Pártja, is a political party in Slovakia, for the ethnic Hungarian minority...
has proposed a law that would grant compensation by "moral and financial means" for Hungarians harmed by the Beneš decrees
Beneš decrees
Decrees of the President of the Republic , more commonly known as the Beneš decrees, were a series of laws that were drafted by the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile in the absence of the Czechoslovak parliament during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II and issued by President...
of former Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. This compensation was to consist of a fund that would be available to the Hungarian community is Slovakia by various means. A similar fund exists to compensate the Germans and the Jews for the wrongdoings of 1939-47. Differences between the two cases exist, and Slovaks claimed the analogy is weak. Despite the historic record, Slovaks argue Hungarians were never expelled (as were the Germans
Expulsion of Germans after World War II
The later stages of World War II, and the period after the end of that war, saw the forced migration of millions of German nationals and ethnic Germans from various European states and territories, mostly into the areas which would become post-war Germany and post-war Austria...
), nor exterminated in death camps (as were the Jews). All ethnically Slovak members voted to confirm the decrees; Hungarian leaders voted against them. The then Hungarian President László Sólyom
László Sólyom
László Sólyom is a Hungarian political figure, lawyer, and librarian who was President of Hungary from 2005 to 2010. Previously he was President of the Constitutional Court of Hungary from 1990 to 1998....
said the decision was unacceptable and that it would put a strain on Hungarian-Slovak relations.
Slovak riot police beating of Hungarian football fans
A November 1, 2008 soccer match between FC Dunajska Streda and Slovan BratislavaŠK Slovan Bratislava
ŠK Slovan Bratislava is a football club based in Bratislava, Slovakia, that plays in the Corgoň liga. Founded as 1. ČsŠK Bratislava in 1919, the club changed its name to Slovan Bratislava in 1953...
was disrupted by Slovak riot police after only 15 minutes injuring more than 60 people, many of whom lost consciousness or suffered injuries including concussion and broken jaws. Local policemen stormed Hungarian nationals, who were at the game to support the home team and to protest the burning of a Hungarian flag at an earlier game. flags with Árpád stripes, favoured by the extreme right in Hungary, were being waved and the home crowd sang the Hungarian national anthem before kickoff.
Press reports from the scene said that the police failed to act against Bratislava supporters who were throwing smoke bombs, noise grenades and other missiles on the pitch. Based on videos posted on the internet showing the incident from various angles the supporters were not doing anything that would warrant such an intervention by police. Five days after the game the Slovak police presented a photo as evidence, showing one of the supporters raising his fist to throw a punch, but police officers can not be seen on the image. Spontaneous demonstrations were held in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
at the embassy and the consulate of Slovakia on the night of the incident. Protesters lit candles to honor the victims and burned a Slovak flag.
Claims of Hungarian irredentism in Viktor Orbán speech
Hungarian opposition leader, chairman of Fidesz, Viktor OrbánViktor Orbán
Viktor Orbán is a Hungarian populist and conservative politician and current Prime Minister of Hungary...
delivered a campaign speech in Esztergom
Esztergom
Esztergom , is a city in northern Hungary, 46 km north-west of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom county, on the right bank of the river Danube, which forms the border with Slovakia there....
, Hungary on May 23, 2009, two weeks before the 2009 European elections, in which he wondered how many MEPs will represent the Hungarians from the Carpathian Basin.Most Hungarian people live scattered across the whole Carpathian Basin and have become separated by state borders due to the Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...
of 1920. (This geographical region, the traditional area of the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
, includes areas of Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
.) The governing coalition of Slovakia condemned the move.
Slovak language law
Slovak language
Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
. Use of a non-state language in state institutions (local government, hospital, police) by citizens interacting with it could carry a financial penalty. The law does not interfere with private use of minority languages.
Reaction of Hungary
Gordon BajnaiGordon Bajnai
György Gordon Bajnai was the seventh Prime Minister of Hungary from 2009 to 2010. In March 2009, following Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány's announced resignation, Bajnai was nominated by the ruling MSZP party to become Hungary's next prime minister...
, the Hungarian Prime Minister, has charged Slovakia of scapegoating Hungarian speakers.
According to the Hungarian standpoint, depriving a local government from its right to ensure making any minority language use at windows possible if ratio of that minority on the settlement was under 10% was unacceptable, only relieving them from an obligation to ensure that would be acceptable by European standards under any percentage. Prohibiting to use it in hospitals, or making it illegal for a postman to hand over a monthly pension if the pensioner can only acknowledge in Hungarian that she is currently receiving her monthly pension was considered endangering basic human rights.The Government of Hungary turned to the EU institutions to request the law from Slovakia in, analize it according to the requirements of EU treaties and conventions and nullify any points they find contradicting them.
The leaders of EU stated that national legislation is under the authority of member nation states, and while EU was founded in order to avert conflicts and solve it in it, bilateral relations doesn't have to take place in the European Parliament. Yet according to request the procedure of checking the conformity of the law the EU institutions naturally start.
Some members of the Government of Hungary during interviews expressed their expectation from older members states to make their presence felt not only when their economic expansion can be achieved, but when there are problems, and try to investigate problems and get informed about marginally known territory when that is necessary.
After the EU handed over the list it found in breach with regulation accepted by Slovakia by being a member the Government told the press it will keep its attention on the process of the modifications and will report again if the result after deadline it considers unsatisfactory.
Press and international reaction
Hungarian foreign minister Péter BalázsPéter Balázs
Péter Balázs is a Hungarian politician and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, born in Kecskemét, 1941. In addition to his native Hungarian, he also speaks English, French, German and Russian....
compared the creation of the language law to the politics of the Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
regime on the use of language. The dual standards for Czech language
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
usage in Slovakia has been questioned with Slovak authorities even considering a ban, however this charge ignores the mutual intelligibility
Mutual intelligibility
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort...
between Czech and Slovak, which render them compatible in business and law.
Opponents have described the law as one that "criminalises the use of Hungarian", According to OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities
High Commissioner on National Minorities
Created on July 8, 1992 by the Helsinki Summit Meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, the High Commissioner on National Minorities is charged with identifying and seeking early resolution of ethnic tension that might endanger peace, stability or friendly relations between...
Knut Vollebæk
Knut Vollebæk
Knut Vollebæk is a Norwegian diplomat and centrist politician . He is educated from the Norwegian School of Economics and the University of California, Santa Barbara....
the language law complies with international law and Slovakia's international obligations. The Party of the Hungarian Coalition (MKP
Party of the Hungarian Coalition
The Party of the Hungarian Coalition, officially registered under the compound name Strana maďarskej koalície – Magyar Koalíció Pártja, is a political party in Slovakia, for the ethnic Hungarian minority...
) asked the Slovak Government to release communication exchanged between them and Vollebæk so that the opinion of Vollebæk regarding the law could not be misrepresented or distorted. According to the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs the report was released unchanged and in full. Spokesman Peter Stano stated: "It is obvious that the Party of the Hungarian Coalition
Party of the Hungarian Coalition
The Party of the Hungarian Coalition, officially registered under the compound name Strana maďarskej koalície – Magyar Koalíció Pártja, is a political party in Slovakia, for the ethnic Hungarian minority...
was unable to question the reliability of Vollebæk report, that law is following the legitimate goal and it's in accordance with all international norms." Vollebaek will monitor the situation until the law on minority language use will reach the level of the state language law.
The American Hungarian Federation (AHF), the largest Hungarian-American umbrella organization in the United States, has repeatedly called attention to what it calls an "unacceptable" law that is "inconsistent with Slovakia’s freely assumed obligations, Western values, democratic principles and the international norms to which Slovakia as a member of the OSCE has committed itself." AHF sees a discriminatory and ill-advised language law as the latest manifestation of the intolerance toward the Hungarian minority by certain segments of Slovakia’s political elite now in office. It notes additional human and minority rights issues such as the gerrymandering of the administrative division of Slovakia so that Hungarians are in the minority in the administrative regions; adopting a resolution proposed by extremist Jan Slota ratifying and confirming the Benes decrees (which imposed collective guilt on Hungarians and continue to adversely affect them); and refusing to rehabilitate Janos Esterhazy, who as leader of the Hungarian Party in Tiso’s Fascist Slovakia was the only Member of Parliament to vote against the deportation of Jews in 1942, yet who died in a Czechoslovak prison after the war.
Minorities in Hungary
Hungary states any national-cultural identification that is compatible with western human right values is equal and as long as they are not in breach with them allows free cultural activity. At the request of minorities names of settlements can be written at their border in their language also, this has been done to many settlements. In practice this means German and Slavic names. Minority local governments operate. Because of the general homogenous state of the country and because of the economic limits of building greater networks in a country with such size presence of minorities can only be found if searched for. Employees speaking foreign languages may find it necessary to go to offices specialized for them. English and German forms of documents are mostly available.Minorities lacked national treatment during the communist times. Marxism defined nationalism, mythic symbology, irrational allocation of resources for artistic reasons and language as enemies of the masses. Mythic, middle-ages symbology and labour-allocation for details on swords etc. was described as producing opium, sold by the feudal lords. Different languages constituted barriers among people and nationalism was used to make people think the feudal lords were defending them from conquest and national assimilation, a death in spirit. According to Marx in reality they defended the form of exploitation, 'nation', by presenting exploiters as defenders. Territorial changes were just replacing exploiter feudal lords. The savior-picture of nobles defending peasants from armies of enemy nobles and the language barriers prevented people from recognizing and uniting against their common oppressor. Russian language and Soviet culture was promoted, even from Hungarian history only peasant-rebels, folk-poets and Republican revolutioners were promoted. No national cultural life was supported. This resulted in remaining Slovaks feeling themselves deprived from their national identity.
According to Slovak historian Ladislav Deák, during communist rule in Hungary, most of the Slovak minority who did not emigrate were stripped of their Slovak identity. Jenő Kaltenbach, Hungarian ex-ombudsman for national minorities and president of the German Minority Self-Government in Hungary, said that "minorities in Hungary, without exception, are on edge of abyss of their identity", "the national minorities were practically assimilated and action programs for them are just an illusion". He also said that the Hungarian minority language law is "nice to hear, but full of unrealised law norms".
Komárno incident
In August 2009 the Hungarian president, László SólyomLászló Sólyom
László Sólyom is a Hungarian political figure, lawyer, and librarian who was President of Hungary from 2005 to 2010. Previously he was President of the Constitutional Court of Hungary from 1990 to 1998....
, planned a visit to the Slovak city of Révkomárom/Komárno
Komárno
Komárno is a town in Slovakia at the confluence of the Danube and the Váh rivers. Komárno was formed from part of a historical town in Hungary situated on both banks of the Danube. Following World War I, the border of the newly created Czechoslovakia cut the historical, unified town in half,...
to unveil a statue commemorating Saint Stephen of Hungary. The day of the visit, August 21 coincided with the date of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
On the night of 20–21 August 1968, the Soviet Union and her main satellite states in the Warsaw Pact – Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic , Hungary and Poland – invaded the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in order to halt Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring political liberalization...
, of which Hungary was a participant, and it is one day after the national celebration of the foundation of the Hungarian state (August 20). The Slovak government labelled the timing deliberate provocation, and questioned the president's refusal to meet with Slovak delegates. The Slovak government issued a one-day travel ban in response, and manned the bridge with policemen to prevent rioting. Sólyom did not enter Slovakia. The government of Hungary called the ban "unfounded" and "unacceptable". Hungary plans to lodge a complaint with the EU, however, according to der Standard
Der Standard
Der Standard is an Austrian national daily newspaper which is published in Vienna . It was founded by Oscar Bronner as a financial newspaper and the first edition was published on 1988-10-19...
, the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
does not want to concern itself with the case.
Attack on the embassy itself
On August 26, 2009, a few days after the Komárno incident, two Molotov cocktailMolotov cocktail
The Molotov cocktail, also known as the petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, Molotov bomb, fire bottle, fire bomb, or simply Molotov, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons...
s were thrown at the Slovak embassy in Budapest, causing no casualties as the flammable fluids did not ignite or detonate. Authorities condemned the attack. The foreign ministry of Slovakia stated they view the incident with great concern, but at the same time "it is seen as an isolated criminal offence".
Attack on the Slovak ambassador
On August 27, 2009, one day following the armed attack on the embassy, a Hungarian driver attempted to run the diplomatic car of Peter Weiss off the road while driving in the Budapest traffic. Though the diplomatic vehicle remained on the road, the driver begun to verbally assault its occupants. The driver and his accomplices were stopped and it is now being investigated whether the outburst was connected to the Embassy attack. The Slovak government did not condemn the attack as a good-will gesture towards Hungary.Political statements by a leading member of the Slovak governing coalition
Following the Slovak parliamentary elections of 2006Slovak parliamentary election, 2006
The 2006 parliamentary elections in Slovakia took place on Saturday June 17, 2006. The voters selected 150 representatives for the National Council of the Slovak Republic. The highest number of seats, 50, was won by left-wing party Direction - Social Democracy led by Robert Fico. In total, six...
the far-right Slovak National Party (SNS) became a small part of the governing coalition. Ján Slota
Ján Slota
Ján Slota is the co-founder and President of the Slovak National Party, an extremist nationalist party. Slota as the leader of SNS entered into a coalition with Robert Fico's Smer in 2006...
, chairman of SNS is known for anti-Hungarian sentiment. Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
and various international media outlets have reported Slota as saying “The Hungarians are a tumor in the body of the Slovak nation.” He also threatened to send tanks to "flatten Budapest" should Slovakia's Hungarian minority, once the ruling class and still about 10 percent of the country's population today, attempt to teach the Slovaks "the Lord's Prayer in Hungarian" once again. Slota also called Hungarians the descendants of "ugly, bow-legged, Mongoloid characters on disgusting horses".
Historical revisionism
It has been alleged that Deputy PM Robert FicoRobert Fico
Robert Fico served as the Prime Minister of Slovakia from July 4, 2006 to July 8, 2010.He is the leader of the left-wing party Direction – Social Democracy . The party won the parliamentary elections in 2006, receiving approximately 30 percent of the cast votes...
has been engaging in historical revisionism in the government's update of the national curriculum. Slovak political scientist Miroslav Kusý
Miroslav Kusý
Miroslav Kusý is a Slovak political scientist and politician. Described as a "dissident" of Czechoslovakia's communist regime, he was given an eight month suspended sentence in November 1989 for an anti-government protest...
claims that by adopting such scientifically questionable rhetoric Fico aims to "strengthen national consciousness by the falsification of history". It is not known whether this issue has affected relations between the states.
The Slovak National Party has sidelined a long-planned joint textbook with Hungary and is promoting instead a Slovak-centred view of the country’s patchwork past.
Hungarian nationality law reform and bill of the day of national unity
On May 26, 2010, the FIDESZ-dominated newly elected Hungarian ParliamentNational Assembly of Hungary
The National Assembly or Diet is the parliament of Hungary. The unicameral body consists of 386 members elected to 4-year terms. Election of members is based on a complex system involving both area and list election; parties must win at least 5% of the popular vote in order to enter list members...
voted to give the ethnic Hungarians living in other countries the right to claim Hungarian citizenship without requiring them to live in Hungary. The only requirements are a Hungarian ancestry and a command of Hungarian.
The purpose of the government MEPs was reunification of the nation according to their own evaluation of who is in need of being granted simplified process of citizenship. The requirements were eased as address in Hungary was not required anymore.
Slovak political force condemned the move and initiated a law that makes a person lose their Slovak citizenship if they take up another in order to discourage them from doing that. The Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico
Robert Fico
Robert Fico served as the Prime Minister of Slovakia from July 4, 2006 to July 8, 2010.He is the leader of the left-wing party Direction – Social Democracy . The party won the parliamentary elections in 2006, receiving approximately 30 percent of the cast votes...
called the proposed reforms a threat to national security. In response to the passage of the Hungarian nationality law reform Slovakia altered its own citizenship law, stripping Slovak citizenship from any Slovak citizen who applies for another citizenship (not applicable if naturalisation procedure is initiated by another states' authorities); in effect highly restricting its recognition of dual citizenship.
Radical Slovak politician Jan Slota stated that as many Hungarians live on both side of the Danube, the next step by them after getting their citizenship can be the demand of being annexed back to Hungary. For this reason he considered his and others' fears justified, and told the press he obviously doesn't accuse Slovaks living in Australia to have the intention of annexing it to Australia, but with Hungary they believe their fear has rational bases.
On 31 May 2010 the Hungarian Parliament declared June 4, the day on which Hungary signed the Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...
in 1920, the day of national unity. The bill was criticized by opposition members, former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány wrote in his blog 'The law wants to heal the injuries of Trianon but only makes new ones.' The bill was voted by 302 representatives (55 rejected, 12 abstained) and it states that:" Every member and community of the Hungarians,who are forced to live under several foreign authorities, is a part of the unified Hungarian nation, whom unity above all state borders is a reality, moreover it is an important element of the individual and universal self-identity of every Hungarian."
'For Slovakia the Treaty of Trianon bears a historical importance' ,Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic reacted on the new bill.'It is a valid document, which was accepted by every signatory's own will. It must be obeyed, its purposes and consequences must not be questioned!' Gasparovic expressed fears that the new Hungarian government and Parliament wants to make a change in foreign policy and wants a revision of the treaty.
The second Orbán Government didn't announce such change which would have been a deviation of the long-term political strategy accepted in the early 1990s, which was the former Orbán Government's strategy also. Hungary at the beginning of the 1990s accepted a constant foreign political strategy of pushing through negotiations and by diplomacy in international organizations for equal treatment of minorities and trying to make sure level of treatment doesn't drop in surrounding states while acknowledging she has no right to interfere with their legislation which is their sovereignty. Hungary has also expressed several times - also in this very bill - that it does not seek any territorial revision{. Seeking it would endanger peace and would most probably end its membership in EU and NATO.
According to an opinion piece by Slovakborn to a Slovak mother and a Czech father in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia journalist Martin M. Šimečka the law resembles the Russian policy of granting citizenship to the inhabitants of the Georgian region of South Ossetia
South Ossetia
South Ossetia or Tskhinvali Region is a disputed region and partly recognized state in the South Caucasus, located in the territory of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the former Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic....
prior to the war of 2008, in which the Russian forces claimed to be protecting new Russian citizens on the Georgian territory. (Note: both Hungary and Slovakia are European Union and NATO members.)
The Hungarian step triggered tensions between the two countries, and sparked an angry response from Slovakia. Slovakia strongly opposes the plan. Slovakia itself allowed dual citizenship at the time, and allowed a limited right of return
Right of return
The term right of return refers to a principle of international law, codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, giving any person the right to return to, and re-enter, his or her country of origin...
for ethnic Slovaks (see Slovak nationality law
Slovak nationality law
right|150pxSlovak nationality law is based on the principles of Jus sanguinis. Slovak citizenship is primarily acquired on the basis of descent from a Slovak parent, rather than birth in the territory of Slovakia....
).
Of Hungary's neighbours, only Slovakia has objected to the move.
János Esterházy controversy
In an August 23, 2011 statement President of SlovakiaPresident of Slovakia
The President of Slovakia is the head of state of Slovakia. The President is directly elected by the people for five years, and can be elected for a maximum of two consecutive terms. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the President does exercise certain limited powers with absolute...
Gašparovič
Ivan Gašparovic
Ivan Gašparovič is a Slovak politician and law professor who has been the President of Slovakia since 15 June 2004. He is also the first Slovak president to be re-elected.-Biography:...
opposed erecting a sculpture in János Esterházy
János Esterházy
Count János Esterházy a member of the House of Esterházy was the most prominent ethnic Hungarian politician in former Czechoslovakia...
’s memory in Kosice
Košice
Košice is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary...
, saying that the one-time deputy had been a follower of Hitler and fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
. He also opposed Ferdinand Ďurčanský
Ferdinand Durcanský
Doctor Ferdinand Ďurčanský was a Slovak nationalist leader who for a time served with the collaborationist government of Jozef Tiso.-Nationalism:...
's sculpture in that case. The president said the Hungarian ethnic politician and martyr was a supporter of Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
. In fact Esterházy had been the only member of the Slovak parliament
National Council of the Slovak Republic
The National Council of the Slovak Republic , abbreviated to NR SR, is the national parliament of Slovakia. It is unicameral, and consists of 150 MPs, who are elected by universal suffrage under proportional representation every four years....
to vote against anti-Jewish laws in 1942. The one-time deputy had always rejected both fascism and communism, suffered in the Gulag and died in a Moravian prison in 1957.
Hungary’s Foreign Ministry the next day rejected Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic’s statement and said that the ideology reflected in the statement did not contribute to the development of bilateral relations. The ministry “notes with regret and incomprehension” that issues surrounding the martyred count are in the focus of daily Slovak politics, the ministry said. The achievements of Esterházy are recognised in many countries including Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, the statement noted. Marek Trubac, the Slovak president’s spokesman, told MTI
MTI
MTI may stand for:* MTI, Message Type Indicator.* MTI Consulting, a consulting firm based in Bahrain.* MTI Consultancy, Machwuerth Team International Group, a consultancy based in Germany.* Magyar Távirati Iroda, a Hungarian news wire agency....
that Esterházy is considered a war criminal in Slovakia, “for supporting fascist ideology”. Though Esterházy did vote against the anti-Jewish bills, he also welcomed (former Hungarian regent) Horthy’s “fascist troops” that occupied Kosice, the spokesman added.
Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén
Zsolt Semjén
Zsolt Semjén is a Hungarian politician, currently minister without portfolio and Deputy Prime Minister in the second cabinet of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán...
said he was appalled by Gasparovic’s statement. He said that Esterházy “heroically exercised the virtues” and was all along committed to the teachings of the Catholic Church, so it is not by chance that his beatification
Beatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
is under way. Semjén called the attack on Esterházy’s memory an insult to the Hungarian nation and the Catholic Church and a violation of universal human rights.
Hungarian President Pál Schmitt
Pál Schmitt
Pál Schmitt is the current President of Hungary. He was elected President of Hungary in a 263 to 59 vote in the Parliament of Hungary and was sworn in on 2010....
said "it is unacceptable that János Esterházy, this true democrat and humanist, still qualifies as a war criminal in Slovakia". The president noted that the Hungarian government and his predecessors had repeatedly initiated Esterházy’s rehabilitation. Schmitt closed the letter with the hope that his forthcoming meeting with Gašparovič in Budapest would focus on the two countries’ common values.
See also
- Foreign relations of HungaryForeign relations of HungaryExcept for the short-lived neutrality declared by the anti-Soviet leader Imre Nagy in November 1956, Hungary's foreign policy generally followed the Soviet lead from 1947 to 1989. During the Communist period, Hungary maintained treaties of friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance with the...
- Foreign relations of SlovakiaForeign relations of SlovakiaSlovak Republic has been a member of European Union since 2004. Slovakia has been an active participant in U.S.- and NATO-led military actions. There is a joint Czech-Slovak peacekeeping force in Kosovo. After the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack on the United States, the government opened its...
- Ethnic tensions in CzechoslovakiaEthnic tensions in CzechoslovakiaThis article describes ethnic tensions in Czechoslovakia from 1918 until 1992.- Background :Czechoslovakia was founded as a country in the aftermath of World War I with its borders set out in the Treaty of Trianon and Treaty of Versailles, though the new borders were de facto established about a...
- SlovakizationSlovakizationSlovakization or Slovakisation is a term used to describe a cultural change in which ethnically non-Slovak people are made to become Slovak. The process can be named as 'accelerated assimilation'....