Localization

92 % of the Hungarians of Slovakia - some 670 thousand souls - live along the Southern border of the Slovak Republic on the territory of approx. 8500 sq.kms. On the said territory the Hungarians comprise 67% of the total population. According to the 1991 census 566 thousand persons declared themselves as ethnic Hungarians, 608 thousand persons as Hungarians per mother tongue. This makes 10,5 or 11 % of the population respectively. The vast majority of persons belonging to the Hungarian community lives in settlements with Hungarian majority, which constitute a compact territorial unit: the frontier between the Hungarian and Slovak ethnic group might be clearly drawn; in 437 settlements there is a Hungarian majority, in 85 ones the proportion of Hungarians is 10-50 %.

Political representation

The Hungarian community of Slovakia is represented in the 150-person law making body by 17 members of parliament. They have been elected by the election list of the Hungarian Coalition, comprised by the three Hungarian parties (Együttélés - Coexistence - 9 MPs, the Hungarian Christian Democratic Movement - 7 MPs, the Hungarian Civic Party - 1 MP).

a) general characteristics

1. The state propaganda accepts the existence of Hungarians in South Slovakia (speaking about 566 thousand souls, e.g. Daniela Rozgoòová, the CSCE and OECD ambassador of the Slovak Republic, Vienna, November 8, 1996), adding consistently however, that the territory is of mixed population, where also 1.1 million od Slovaks live.

The ambassador lady could have quoted a considerably higher proportion, too, since every calculation depends on the size of the Slovaks-inhabited territory included into the region of South Slovakia.

2.The Slovak Republic undertook - when admitted to the EU - the revision of the "Beneš-decrees", the provisions of which afflicted the Hungarians and the Germans (Opinion No. 175/1993, para 10).

The "The decrees afflicted only those Hungarians, who were war criminals or colaborated with the fascists" like mendacious and deceptive statements, known from communist era, re-appear in the official arguments (e.g. the statement of the Slovak delegation on the CSCE conference in Vienna, November 8, 1996). The "Beneš-decrees" have afflicted all the Hungarians and Germans putting them into the same category as war criminals and fascist colaborators and depriving them of their rights, citizenship, property etc.

This attitude is in contradiction with the

i. Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE (1990),

para 31, section 2: The participating states will adopt, where necessary, special measures for the purpose of ensuring to persons belonging to national minorities full equality with the other citizens in the exercize and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

and para 40, section 1-7, which determine the prohibition of the discrimination of individuals and groups.

ii. Opinion No.175/1993 of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on the application by the Slovak Republic for membership of the Council of Europe, para 10: It encourages the authorities of the Slovak Republic to continue the efforts they have begun to eliminate from its legislation all the laws and decrees adopted by previous governments which are likely to contain elements discriminating against a group of persons or an ethnic, national community living on its territory, particularly those concerning "collective guilt".

iii. Treaty on Good Neighbourliness and Friendly Co-operation between the Slovak Republic and the Republic of Hungary (Basic Treaty, 1996),

article 15, para 2b: ...all persons belonging to a national minority shall be equal before the law and have equal protection of the law. In this respect, any discrimination based on belonging to a national minority shall be prohibited.

3. By the reorganization of administrative regions the up to now existing smallest administrative units - the zones - have been ceased, the districts (next unit in administrative division) have been rearranged so that only in two of them a strong Hungarian majority remained. Before the reorganization there was a majority of Hungarians in 17 administrative units (in 5 they were in minority), now there is a majority in only two, in all other units the Hungarians are in a local minority, too. (The ceased adminstrative units comprised up to 25 settlements in general.) In the Hungarians-inhabited territories the new district (at present the smallest administrative unit) borders were drawn and the existing ones redrawn in such a way that it resulted in the smallest possible proportion of Hungarians

.The result to be expected:

- the Hungarians will have an insignificant word in the self-government bodies of the new provinces (largest administrative regions; the proportion of Hungarians being 10-27% per province);

- since the borders of the election districts were so far interdependent with the administrative territories, the new electoral law will very likely decrease the number of the Hungarian MPs to be elected;

- the aspirations of the Hungarian national community will not be able to get across in these - otherwise democratically working - institutions.

4. The Treaty on Good Neighbourliness and Friendly Co-operation between the Slovak Republic and the Republic of Hungary (Basic Treaty, 1996)

i. states in its introductory lines:

Recognizing that persons belonging to national minorities form an integral part of the society and of the State of the Contracting Party on whose territory they live and that they contribute to the enrichment of the life of their society and to building confidence, friendship and co-operation between their respective countries, and declaring that they feel responsibility for granting protection to and promoting preservation and deepening of national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity of the minorities living within their respective territories.

In contradiction to this, steadily discriminating measures are being taken against the Hungarian community, trying to hinder the preservation of identity;

ii. accepts as rights obligations undertaken in relevant international documents (UN Proclamation, the Coppenhagen Document, the Recommendation No.1201/1993 of the Parliamentary Assembly of the CE);

iii. ensures the possibility to create organs of self-government (Rec.No.1201/1993, art.11). The Hungarian community of Slovakia has few special self-government organs. The local self-governments in some regions created self-government associacions (e.g. the Csallóköz Region). As for the professional self-governments the Association of Hungarian Pedagogues of Slovakia could be mentioned. The Hungarian community as such has no comprehensive self-government body in Slovakia.

iv. the article 15, para 2e ensures the possibility for institutional autonomy; some libraries, the National Documentation Centre, some local collections in self-government property can be mentioned.

v. the article 15, para 2g ensures the usage of mother tongue in administration and jurisdiction. In spite of this provision the reality is different: the usage of the Hungarian language is practically eliminated from the administration.

vi. article 2, para 3 ensures the cross-frontier co-operation;

vii. article 12, para 5 ensures the equivalence of diplomas.

5. Acquired rights

At the time of the establishment of Czechoslovakia an extensive enumeration of minority rights was part of the Trianon Peace Treaty. These rights have been included into the Czechoslovak Constitution of 1920. These acquired minority rights are not taken into account by the Slovak Republic as the legal successor of Czechoslovakia. Thus the acquired rights are encroached, nowadays we can speak only of the shadow of their original volume.

6. The anti-Hungarian politics of the Government can be traced

- in the driving back of the Hungarian language (see the so called "alternative education", the Law on State Language, the Law on Administrative Reorganization, the discriminative subsidization by the Ministry of Culture, the public TV being under total influence of the Government, the style of the Government newspaper Slovenská Republica, etc.);

- in the dismissal of civil servants of Hungarian mother tongue and their constant low number in the territories with Hungarian inhabitants respectively;

- in the incitement of anti-Hungarian attitudes;

- in the low subsidization of Hungarians-inhabited territories;

- in the marginalization of the Hungarian culture.

b) preservation of identity

7. Educational politics, the public education law under preparation As a general characteristic every new law or measure taken serves for the driving back of the usage of the Hungarian language as the most important component of the preservation of identity (e.g. the Slovak language exam has been introduced for the first time in secondary school entrance examinations).

The teaching language of newly established schools is often "forgotten" to be stated in the statutes with a presumable intention of easier changing of the teaching language from Hungarian to Slovak later on. The "alternative" nurseries (the effective morning lessons being held in Slovak) will presumably produce adults with broken Hungarian consciousness.

The creators of the public education law want consonantly the Slovak language, history, geography and physical training to be taught in Slovak language. In secondary technical schools and schools of professional training the professional subjects would be added to the previous ones. In our view the identity preservation strength of these schools would be nearly null, i.e. they would perfectly suit the accelerated assimilation. The Hungarian teacher training in Slovakia, the planned changes of the minority education and many other - individually inconspicuous - steps of the power serve the cessation of the Hungarian-teaching-language-education in Slovakia.

8. The law on higher education

It limits the university authonomy, compels the higher education institutions to work out new statutes. (As a matter of curiosity the Statutes of the Konstantin University of Nitra include not a single word about the Hungarian teacher training, though this is the only institution ensuring it on country-wide scale.)

The law gives a possibility to dissolve the two city universities (Komárom/Komárno, Királyhelmec/Krá¾ovský Chlmec), which try to fill up gaps in the Hungarian higher education in Slovakia.

9. The suspension of the legal entity of theatres

The whole country was deeply indignant at the reorganization efforts of the Ministry of Culture. The theatres were deprived of their legal entity and put under control of a regional state intendant, thus negatively affecting every theatre's life. The measure has a specially negative influence on the two Hungarian regional theatres: they have completely lost their relative independence.

10. The subsidization of the culture

The "Pro Slovakia Foundation" - established for the state support of the culture - spends 50% of the anyway small ammount, allocated by the budget for minority cultures, for anti-minority (state) propaganda. After the invalidation of the government regulation No.193/1993 on the obligation of the budget to support minority cultures (by the government regulation No.466/1996) there is no legal measure to deal with it.

Untill November 1, 1996 the Hungarian culture (not to speak of the theatre-support, which is considerably lower than the national average) was subsidized by 380.000,-Sk only (of which 200.000,-Sk is only a promise).

The representative cultural association of the whole of the Hungarian community of Slovakia - the CSEMADOK - got an ever decreasing, and finally in 1996 none subsidy. The public cultural institutions of Hungarian interest (museums, libraries) get a minimum or none at all subvention.

The present power treats the institutions of the Hungarian culture as enemies.

11. The Law on Foundations

It touches the Hungarian community keenly since the Hungarians brought into being a network of small foundations (supporting mainly culture and education), which will presumably cease to exist after the Law is enacted.

The Law remarkably limits the possibility of existence and activities of existing foundations by the ill-proportioned raising of the registered capital, by its possible state control, by the exclusion of the support of political parties.

12. The Law on State Language

The Law provides for obligatory state language usage in official contacts. Though it stipulates it does not touch the minority language usage, it strongly drives back the minority language usage by its regulations. The activities of the "language-inspectors" and the possible fines for the violation of the Law (indictable since January 1, 1997) are among the most criticized items. At the time of the passing of the bill several leading personalities (V.Meèiar, Prime Minister; K.Tóthová, Vice-Premier) promised to pass a bill on the usage of the minority languages later on. However the so called "minority round table" (working side with the Government), in which the minority representatives are in numerical minority, rejected the necessity of a law on minority language usage, thus creating a reference for the Governmnet in case of calling to account on international fora.

13.The plea of the Hungarian Roman Catholics

Approximately 80% of the Hungarian community of Slovakia belong to the Roman Catholic Church. In spite of this there is no Hungarian bishop in the Roman Catholic Church of Slovakia. The plea of the parishioners in that matter is constantly rejected with different pretexts by the Church authorities.

14.The demolition of millecentenary monuments

The Hungarian people built in more than 100 settlements with Hungarian majority monuments to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of the settlement of Hungarians in the Carpathian basin. The originator of the erection of a monument was usually the local oraganization of CSEMADOK. The power, the Ministry of Culture, the Environmental Office in many places attacked the erection of memorials and insist on their demolition. There are six affairs in process (Rimaszombat/Rimavská Sobota, Bõs/Gabèíkovo, Krasznahorkaváralja/Krásnohorské Podhradie, Nagykapos/Ve¾ké Kapušany etc.). There was even a judgement delivered in such a case. The administration offices ordain a fine and the demolition of monument as well.

Back to contents