Ján Sokol, Archbishop of Bratislava/Pozsony-Trnava/Nagyszombat told a three-member delegation of the Hungarian Roman Catholic community that he is not giving any consideration to ethnic-Hungarian worshipers’ need to have their own bishopric in Slovakia. Sokol dismissed the request by saying that since everybody, regardless to their nationality, prays to the same God, there’s no need for a Hungarian bishop. For the past 13 years, the Hungarian Roman Catholic community has focused attention on their aspiration by organizing days of worship [see report of April 21, 2002]. [ Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony) July 18, 2002]

Ivan Gasparovic, former parliamentary speaker and one of Vladimir Meciar’s closest political allies, lead a breakaway group of HZDS politicians to form a new party, the Movement for Democracy (HZD). The rift between the two sides came to surface at HZDS’s national nominating congress in Nitra/Nyitra when some of the party’s top politicians were left out and new party members were included on the nominee list for the upcoming September national elections. The newly-formed party has managed to collect the necessary 10,000 signatures to be eligible for the elections. As the latest opinion polls already show a 5 percent decrease in the renamed Movement for a Democratic Slovakia – People’s Party (HZDS-LS)’s popularity, speculation arises to Meciar’s chances at winning the elections, though his party still leads at 24 percent. [ MTI – Hungarian Telegraph Agency (Budapest) July 12 and 17, 2002]

Progress was made in restoring a monument of historical significance to the Hungarian community in Slovakia: a statue of the Hungarian national poet, Sándor Petőfi. In March 2001 [ see report of March 20, 2001] , the statue located in the village of Petrzalka/Pozsonyligetfalu was vandalized and has now been dismantled in order to unveil its restored version on March 15, 2003 in a Bratislava/Pozsony inner-city park, the Medikus Gardens. This long-awaited move was made possible by the Hungarian-Slovak Cultural Collaboration Agreement. The statue was originally commissioned by the Toldi civic organization from sculptor János Radnai and erected in Bratislava/Pozsony in 1911. Eight years later the statue was demolished by Czech legionaries and kept in a warehouse for almost four decades. Re-erected in Petrzalka in 1955, Sándor Petőfi’ statue has suffered several acts of vandalism throughout the years. [Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony) July 11 and 12, 2002]

The Slovak Parliament refused for the second consecutive time to discuss the anti-discrimination bill submitted by Pál Csáky, Deputy Prime Minister for Human Rights, Minorities and Regional Development, drawing sharp criticism from Dirk Meganck, the European Union’s chief negotiator on Slovakia. The draft aims to meet EU directives on anti-discrimination on the basis of race, age, religion, and sexual or political orientation. As previously [ see report of June 27, 2002] , the majority of MPs argued that the law would allow homosexual couples to adopt children, a social taboo in the country. [Slovak Spectator (Bratislava/Pozsony) July 8, 2002]

After one and a half years of dawdling, the Senate of the Nitra/Nyitra-based Konstantín University ultimately decided not to establish an independent Hungarian-language department as urged in a Slovak government recommendation put forth at the request of the Hungarian community [ see report of January 24, 2001] . Instead, the university leadership agreed to set up a multi-lingual Central European Studies department beginning Fall 2003, and not specifying Hungarian as a language of instruction. This unexpected development followed what seemed as substantial progress during the latest negotiations between the Education Ministry, the Hungarian Coalition Party (HCP) and the Konstantín University leadership, when the Hungarian community was led to believe that the only outstanding issue was the name of the future department [ see report of January 3, 2002] . HCP President Béla Bugár commented that “following the September 2002 elections, we will insist not on a Hungarian-language faculty, but a fully independent, state-funded Hungarian-language university.” The creation of the Hungarian-language faculty at Nitra was one of the most important political goals of HCP when it agreed to join the coalition government in 1998. However, throughout the past four years, support even on the part of the other coalition members was half-hearted, thereby encouraging Konstantín University not to take action. [MTI – Hungarian Telegraph Agency (Budapest) July 2, 2002 and Új Szó (Bratislava/Pozsony) July 3 and 4, 2002]