By a vote of 50:41 and 14 abstentions the Parliament rejected a no-confidence motion against Pál Csáky, ethnic Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister for Human Rights, Minorities and Regional Development. The motion was introduced by the Slovak National Party (SNS) and the Meciar-lead Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS). The main accusation against Csáky was that he had participated in ceremonies in Budapest honoring Count János Esterházy on March 11, along with other Hungarian Coalition Party officials and Frantisek Miklosko, Deputy of the Christian Democratic Movement [see report of March 14]. SNS Chairwoman Anna Malíková submitted a similar motion against Béla Bugár, President of the HCP and Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, on March 20, but it did not get enough votes to be placed on the parliament’s agenda. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony) March 31, 2001 and MTI – Hungarian Telegraph Agency (Budapest) March 20, 2001]

The Hungarian Coalition Party (HCP) is concerned about the fact that high-ranking officials of the government have still not taken a public stand against recent anti-Hungarian provocations, stated Gyula Bárdos, HCP faction leader, at a press conference in Bratislava/Pozsony. During the past week, several Hungarian-related institutions and statues have been vandalized throughout the country, including the capital of Bratislava/Pozsony [see reports of March 19, 20, 22 and 27]. [MTI – Hungarian News Agency (Budapest), March 28, 2001]

Anti-Hungarian inscriptions continue to appear in diverse locations throughout Slovakia. After incidents in Kosice/Kassa and Bratislava/Pozsony [see reports of March 19, 20 and 22] graffiti inciting against Hungarians, swastikas and crossed out letter ‘H’-s were painted on the protestant church in Rimavska Sobota/Rimaszombat and insulting inscriptions were spray painted on the sign of the local office of the Hungarian Coalition Party in Szenc/Senec. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), March 27, 2001]

The letters ‘H’ (international symbol of the Republic of Hungary) with a slash through them were spray painted on several buildings in Kosice/Kassa, including the Hungarian Consulate, a Hungarian bookstore, the Hungarian Thália Theater, the Hungarian-language Sándor Márai school, as well as the statue of Hungarian poet Dávid Baróti Szabó. Hungarian Consul György Varga told the Hungarian press agency MTI that the actions had probably been synchronized with, and connected to recent anti-Hungarian incidents in other Slovak localities [see reports of March 19 and 20]. The Consul pointed out that as a private person he was not satisfied with Minister for Internal Affairs Ladislav Pittner’s comments on the March 20 defacement of the Petőfi statue in Bratislava/Pozsony since the minister had not taken a stand against the incident, but merely stated that similar acts of vandalism were to be expected until the elections. Péter Kolár, Director of the Thália Theater, disclosed to MTI that the theater has regularly been the target of anti-Hungarian vandalism. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), March 22 and 23, and MTI – Hungarian News Agency (Budapest), March 22, 2001]

A few days after the peaceful commemoration of the 1848 Hungarian war for independence, the statue of the Hungarian national poet Sándor Petőfi was again defaced in Bratislava/Pozsony. Unidentified perpetrators sprayed the statue with anti-Hungarian slogans such as “Go home,” “Outlaw the HCP” (Hungarian Coalition Party), as well as obscenities. On the same night, windows of a Hungarian-language school in the center of the city were also broken. Both the statue and the school have been targets of similar anti-Hungarian vandalism throughout recent years. Árpád Duka Zólyomi, member of the Sándor Petőfi Monument Committee and Deputy President of the HCP, disclosed that the Committee had filed criminal charges in every case, but the perpetrators remain unidentified to this day. Duka Zólyomi pointed out that “incidents were to be expected since the opposition has continually accused the HCP of irredentism and other absurdities during the parliamentary debate on the constitutional amendment broadcast live by the national television channel” [see report of February 9]. Police are investigating the incidents. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), March 21, 2001, MTI – Hungarian Telegraph Agency (Budapest), March 20, 2001 and Népszabadság (Budapest), March 21, 2001]

Unknown perpetrators painted anti-Hungarian slogans on the main entrance of the Hungarian-language Sándor Márai school in the eastern Slovak town of Kassa/Kosice. The inscriptions demand a “pure Slovakia” and that “Hungarians leave behind the Danube”. A police investigation is underway. [MTI – Hungarian Telegraph Agency (Budapest), March 19, 2001]

The Slovak National Party (SNS) filed criminal charges with the Chief Prosecutor’s Office against Hungarian Coalition Party (HCP) officials who had participated in ceremonies in Budapest honoring Count János Esterházy on March 11. SNS Chairwoman Anna Malíková told SITA news agency that in this way HCP President Béla Bugár, Deputy Prime Minister for Human Rights, Minorities and Regional Development Pál Csáky and other HCP deputies violated the rights of Slovaks living in territories of Slovakia that had been reannexed to Hungary in 1938. A key figure in the Hungarian minority’s history in Slovakia, Count Esterházy was the only deputy in the Slovak parliament who voted against persecution of the country’s Jews during World War II. After the war he was condemned to death on charges of treason and died in prison in 1947. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), March 15, 2001]

The Nitra – Mother of Slovak Cities civic organization handed over a petition to the rector of the Konstantin University in Nyitra/Nitra, Daniel Kluvanec, containing 55,000 signatures against creating a Hungarian-language faculty at the institution. The organization started to gather signatures in February 2 [see report of February 2] after the government had adopted a resolution recommending the faculty to ensure the adequate training of Hungarian-language teachers in Slovakia [see report of January 24]. [MTI – Hungarian Telegraph Agency (Budapest), March 12, 2001]

Representatives of the Hungarian Coalition Party (HCP) walked out from a meeting with their governing coalition partners after these had declined to consider any of the five proposals submitted by the HCP regarding future public administration reform, a chief prerequisite for the country’s EU-integration. Proposals by the HCP target modification of the current administrative structure in the southern part of the country, where the overwhelming majority of the 570,000-strong Hungarian community resides. These boundaries were marked out by the Meciar regime in 1996 as a means of abolishing the statistical majority of Hungarians in certain districts, such as the historic region of Zitny Ostrov/Csallóköz, and was severely criticized by opposition parties at the time, now in government. After HCP officials left, a proposal was adopted ignoring ethnic Hungarian concerns and dividing the country into 12 counties. In an interview with the Hungarian-language daily, Új Szó, József Kvarda, Deputy Chairman of the HCP and Chairman of the HCP’s Council for Public Administration, pointed out that the party’s proposals had not been created exclusively on an ethnic basis, but took into account the economic interests of the regions when recommending changes in the current administrative boundaries. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony), March 10, 2001 and MTI – Hungarian Telegraph Agency (Budapest) March 2 and 5, 2001]