Hungarians in Slovakia - The Situation of The Hungarian Minority Today

The Situation of The Hungarian Minority Today

The 1992 Slovak constitution is derived from the concept of the Slovak nation state. The preamble of the Constitution, however, cites Slovaks and ethnic minorities as the constituency. Moreover, the rights of the diverse minorities are protected by the Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights, and various other legally binding documents. The Party of the Hungarian Coalition is represented in Parliament and was part of the government coalition from 1998 to 2006.

The Constitution also declares that Slovak is the state language on the territory of the Slovak Republic. Make this rules concrete, the 1995 Language Law declares that the State language has a priority over other languages applied on the whole territory of the Slovak Republic. The 2009 amendment of the language law restricts the use of minority languages, and extend the obligatory use of the state language, e.g. in communities where the number of minority speaker is less than 20% of the population. Under the 2009 amendment a fine up to 5000 euros may be imposed on those committing a misdemeanour in relation to the use of the state language.

In 1995, a so-called Basic Treaty was signed between Hungary and Slovakia, regarded by the US and leading European powers as a pre-condition for these countries to join NATO and the EU. In the basic treaty the Hungary and Slovakia undertook a wide range of legal obligations among others the acceptance of recommendation 1201 of the European Council which in its article 11 states that 'in the regions where they are in a majority the persons belonging to a national minority shall have the right to have at their disposal appropriate local or autonomous authorities or to have a special status, matching the specific historical and territorial situation and in accordance with the domestic legislation of the state.'

After the regions of Slovakia became autonomous in 2002(?), the SMK was able to take power in the Nitra Region. It became part of the ruling coalition in several other regions. Since the new administrative system was put in place in 1996, the SMK has asked for the creation of a Hungarian-majority Komárno county. Although a territorial unit of the same name existed before 1918, the borders proposed by the SMK are significantly different. The proposed region would encompass a long slice of southern Slovakia, with the explicit aim to create an administrative unit with an ethnic Hungarian majority. Hungarian minority politicians and intellectuals are convinced that such an administrative unit is essential for the long-term survival of the Hungarian minority. The Slovak government has so far refused to change the boundaries of the administrative units, and ethnic Hungarians continue as minorities in each.

According to Sabrina P. Ramet, professor of international studies at the University of Washington, who refers to situation under Vladimír Mečiar's administration between 1994 and 1998:

In Central and eastern Europe, there are at least nine zones afflicted by ethnic hatred and intolerance...the greatest potential for hostilities can be identified eith problems of discrimination against the Hungarian minority in southern Slovakia and Romanian Transylvania. In both cases, national regimes have discriminated against local ethnic Hungarians, depriving them of the right to use their native language for official business; taking step to reduce the use of Hungarian as a language of instruction in local schools, and, in the Slovak case, removing Hungarian street signs from villages populated entirely by Hungarians, replacing them with Slovak-language signs. Slovak authorities even went so far to pass a law requiring that Hungarian woman marrying a Hungarian man add the suffix "-ova" to her name, as is the custom among Slovaks. Hungarians have rebelled against the prospect of such amalgams as "Nagyova", "Bartokova", "Kodályova", and "Petöfiova".

Sabrina P. Ramet; Whose democracy?: nationalism, religion, and the doctrine of collective rights in post-1989 Eastern Europe (1997); p52-53

The coalition formed after the parliamentary elections in 2006 saw the Slovak National Party headed by Ján Slota (frequently described as ultra-nationalist, right-wing extremist) become a member of the ruling coalition, led by the allegedly social-democratic Smer party. After its signing of a coalition treaty with far-right extremist party SNS, the Smer's Social-Democratic self-identification was questioned.

In August 2006, a few incidents motivated by ethnic hatred caused diplomatic tensions between Slovakia and Hungary. Mainstream Hungarian and Slovak media blamed Slota's anti-Hungarian statements from the early summer for the worsening ethnic relations. The Party of European Socialists, with which the Smer is affiliated, regards SNS as a party of the racist far-right. It reacted to news of the coalition by expressing grave concern. The PES suspended Smer's membership on 12 October 2006 and decided to review the situation in June 2007. The decision was then extended until February 2008, when Smer's candidacy was readmitted by PES. On 27 September 2007, the Slovak parliament reconfirmed the Beneš decrees, appearing to legitimize the historic accusation of collective guilt and deportation of Hungarians and Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II.

In May 2010, the newly-appointed second Viktor Orbán's cabinet in Hungary initiated a bill on dual citizenship, granting Hungarian passports to members of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia, purportedly aimed at offsetting the harmful effects of the Treaty of Trianon, and raising a huge controversy between Hungary and Slovakia. Though János Martonyi, the new foreign minister, visited his Slovak colleague to discuss the dual citizenship, Robert Fico however stated that since Fidesz and the new government did not want to negotiate on the issue, this would be a question of national security. Ján Slota Slovak government member for the Slovak National Party, fears that Hungary wants to attack Slovakia and considered the situation as a "beginning of a war conflict". The designate Prime Minister Viktor Orbán laid down firmly that he considers Slovak hysteria as part of the campaign. As a response to change in Hungarian citizenship law, the National Council of the Slovak Republic approved on May 26, 2010 a law stating that if a Slovak citizen applies for citizenship of another country then he/she will lose his/her Slovak one.