Hungary–Slovakia relations

Hungarian-Slovak relations

Hungary	Slovakia

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, 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 Hungarians living in Slovakia (about 10% of its population) and around 17,000 ethnic Slovaks in Hungary (about 0.17% of its population).

There have been many diplomatic conflicts between the two countries, which became more frequent since the Slovak National Party, an extremist nationalist party led by Ján Slota became part of the Government of the Republic of Slovakia.

History

See also: Felvidék, Hungarians in Slovakia, History of Hungary, and History of Slovakia

The history of Hungarians and Slovaks has been tightly connected.

Slavs arrived to the Western Carpathians in the 7th century. In the 9th century a part of, or all of the Western Carpathians belonged to Great Moravia, a tributary state to the Frankish Empire. The history of Great Moravia is not fully known, their borders and the relation of Moravians to today's Slovaks is under dispute among historians.

Hungarians, a union of seven tribes (Principality of Hungary), arrived to the Carpathian Basin in the late 9th century. They conquered the Carphathian Basin around 900, the Carpathian part of Great Moravia in 899 and fought campaigns in far Western Europe.

In 1000, Hungary became a kingdom under King Saint Stephen, containing the area where present-day Slovakia lies. In 1241-42, a huge area of the Kingdom of Hungary was destroyed by the Tatar invasion.

When Slovaks became a distinct people is not precisely known. The Cartographia World Atlas of History names the 15th century Slavs of northern Hungary as Slovaks. The modern concept of nation and with that, the Slovak national movement appeared after the French Revolution, in the 19th century.

In the 16th century central Hungary was occupied by the Ottoman Empire, while Hungary had been split to the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom (Transylvania) and the Habsburg Royal Hungary, which contained most of today's Slovakia. The Ottoman oppression lasted until around 1700. Hungary remained part of the Habsburg Empire until 1867, when Austria-Hungary was formed as a dual monarchy by the Ausgleich.

Pre-World War I ethnographic map, with the current state borders of Slovakia and Hungary. The common border line of the two countries was established in the Treaty of Trianon of 1920 and was drawn in a way that split areas of Hungarian majority.

Austria-Hungary has been dissolved during World War I in top of losing, and both Austria and Hungary were punished by the winning countries, e.g. France and Great Britain, separately. The Treaty of Trianon confirmed the new borders of Hungary, detaching more than 70% of its territories. The new borders were drawn through areas of ethnic Hungarian majority, leaving 30% of the Hungarians (about 3,300,000 people) outside Hungary. Hungary felt humiliated by this decision and requested the revision of borders. Czechoslovakia was formed in 1918, and received around 61,000 km² of former Hungarian territories in the Treaty of Trianon.

The Hungarian population of the area of current Slovakia has been reduced over the years from over 31% (1910) to today's less than 10% (2001). Some contributing factors to the rapid decrease in the share of Hungarians were Slovakization, strong anti-Hungarian sentiment amongst Slovaks forcing Hungarians to leave during the war and shortly afterwards, and mass deportation of Hungarians in 1945-47 after their property was confiscated and their (Czechoslovak) citizenship revoked as per the Beneš decrees.

Before World War II, Hungary regained areas of Czechoslovakia with Hungarian majority in the First Vienna Award of 1938. These territories, however, as Hungary lost World War II, were given to Czechoslovakia again, reestablishing the Trianon borders (with the addition of villages of Oroszvár, Horvátjárfalu and Dunacsún given to Czechoslovakia in the northwest) in the Treaty of Paris.

According to the official census 104,819 Slovaks were living in Hungary^[when?] , yet the Czechoslovak authorities estimated their numbers to be 4-500,000. The Czechoslovak government did not hide their dismay when the total number of Slovaks volunteering to be brought to Czechoslovakia was "only" 97,610 even after extended signup-time.

According to the official 1910 census over one million Hungarians were living in the territories occupied and later annexed by Czechoslovakia. After 1945 about 30,000 Hungarians fled Czechoslovakia for being forced out of the pension, social and healthcare system , the loss of their citizenship and property ordered by the Benes decrees. Countless others were first hoarded in ghettos in Petržalka first (in a manner similar to the treatment of the Jews during Holocaust) and then expelled to Hungary. Massacre of the Hungarians in the camps has been reported as well. Most of the Hungarians hoarded in these ghettos were in fact citizens of Bratislava. This was the very first move of the Czechoslovak government against Hungarians. The Czechoslovak leadership even pressed for a complete cleansing of the country by the deportation of all Hungarians, however the allies prevented a unilateral expulsion. After the initial plan failed, Czechoslovakia pressed for a bilateral population exchange, to remove Hungarians in exchange for Slovak population, thus changing the ethnic makeup of the country. This plan was initially rejected by Hungary under Soviet occupation at the time. Later between 55,487 to 89,660 Hungarians from Slovakia were exchanged for 71,787 to 73,200 Slovaks from Hungary, the exact number depending on the source used. The population exchange was voluntary on the for Slovaks (in Hungary) but compulsory for Hungarians (on the Czechoslovak part) who were collected and deported by the Czechoslovak army while having all their property in Czechoslovakia confiscated, much like the way the rest of the population ended up after the communist takeover (the only difference being that Hungarians and Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia are unable to recover their confiscated property up to this day). Over 40,000 Hungarians were also deported to Czech territories, most of which returned home after the communist takeover of 1948. As a result of the population exchange the number of Slovaks in Hungary has rapidly decreased from the original 104,819 to the today's approx. 17,000 (according to the 2001 census) leaving only a small community in Hungary.

According to Slovak historian Ladislav Deák, during the commmunist rule in Hungary, most of the Slovaks who didn't move to Czechoslovakia lost their Slovak identity Jenő Kaltenbach, ex-ombutsman of national minorties, said that "minorities in Hungary, without exception, are on edge of abyss of their identity", "the national minorities were practicly assimilated and action programs for them are just an illusion". He also said that the Hungarian minority language law is in category of "nice to hear, but full of unrelized law norms".

Czechoslovakia dissolved into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993; since then Hungary and Slovakia maintain diplomatic relations.

Recent conflicts

See also: 2006 Slovak-Hungarian diplomatic affairs

There has also been numerous conflicts between the two countries since the 1990s.

The controversy about the Gabčíkovo - Nagymaros Dams

See also: Gabčíkovo - Nagymaros Dams

The case of Hedvig Malina

Main article: Hedvig Malina

Hedvig Malina, a Hungarian student from Horné Mýto (Hungarian: Vámosfalu), Slovakia, was allegedly physically assaulted in a hate crime incident. Her case represents a highly controversial and debated issue of Hungarian-Slovak relations.

Malina claims she was severely beaten and robbed on 25 August, 2006 in Nitra ([Nyitra ] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) after speaking Hungarian in public. She claims her attackers wrote "SK [probably Slovakia] without parasites" (Slovak: SK bez parazitov), and "Hungarians to the other side of the Danube" (Maďari za Dunaj) on her clothes, the latter of the terms having been written with a spelling mistake (with an i instead of j). The alleged perpetrators were skinhead teenagers, while the alleged victim was a university student specializing in languages. The Slovak police alleged that the assault had never taken place, but the appearance of severe bruises and wounds on her (photographed in detail after the assault) was never explained. Currently Malina is being charged with perjury and further police investigation is in progress.

Most Slovak political parties condemned the incident, the Slovak National Party, led by Ján Slota, being a notable exception.

In December 2007, 15 months after the alleged beating, the Slovak police gave the videotape about the initial Malina hearing to Roman Kvasnica, her lawyer. It became apparent that the police had broken the law several times. They did not mention before that another three police officers were present in the room throughout the hearing. The interviewers stopped the recording several times. The interview lasted for six hours, but the police recorded only five hours of it, and Kvasnica got only three hours of the recording. Despite the police's earlier claims not one, but two cameras were used for the recording. Malina remains to be charged with perjury for which she may be sentenced up to five years in prison.

Malina then took her case to the European Court of Human Rights, challenging what she calls the "inhuman and humiliating" conduct of the Slovak officials. She reportedly told the Népszabadság that she was only looking for "moral satisfaction."

The tour guide affair

A group of Hungarian students from Szekszárd, Hungary accompanied by two history teachers visited Bratislava (Hungarian: Pozsony) where the teachers were giving a lecture about the cathedral of the city (an important artifact of the Hungarian history, where numerous Hungarian kings were crowned).

The teachers were interrogated by the Slovak police in Bratislava under the charge of performing an illegal tour, meaning that their lecture for the students was and act of being a guide without having proper license. Although the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked for an official apology from his Slovak colleague, it never happened (just like after any other incidents between Slovakia and Hungary) and as it later turned out, there was no law requiring a guide license for tour guiding in Bratislava at the time.

Confirmation of the Beneš decrees

In the summer of 2007, MKP has proposed a law that would grant compensation by "moral and financial means" for Hungarians harmed by the Benes decrees.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. Despite that the iniciative of MKP led to a political outrage against the Hungarians along with Pál Csáky, the leader of MKP being labeled an "extremist to strengthen his position within SMK (MKP)". A petition has been started by Hungarian intelligentsia in favor of the compensation as well, to no avail. On 20 September 2007 the Slovak Parliament (re)confirmed the Beneš decrees in a declaration.

The most known parts of the decrees deal with the status of ethnic Germans and Hungarians in post-war Czechoslovakia, probably fearing Hungarian territorial claims on the 85% Hungarian majority in southern Czechoslovakia that was reattached to Hungary in 1938. These parts of the decrees declared Hungarians collectively guilty of the war, and deprived them of their property, citizenship and basic human rights.

All ethnically Slovak members voted to confirm the decrees; Hungarian leaders voted against it. The then Hungarian President László Sólyom said the decision was unacceptable and that it would put a strain on Hungarian-Slovak relations.

Before that, Ján Slota, the chairman of the Slovak governing party SNS, said in 2007 that anyone who questions the way of sorting out the European situation after World War II should be imprisoned, and "there he can ponder about all that". Slota and his party wanted to create laws that would imprison anyone who questioned either the 1920 Treaty of Trianon (to aim to reform the borders with Czechoslovakia where over a million Hungarians live), or the decrees of Beneš, declaring Hungarians collectively guilty of the war.

Police attack in Dunajská Streda

On November 1, 2008 in Dunajská Streda (Hungarian: Dunaszerdahely), Slovakia was a football game fought between the DAC and Slovan where Hungarian viewers were beaten by Slovak policemen, after only 15 minutes of gameplay, injuring more than 60 people, many of whom lost consciousness or suffered injuries including concussion and broken jaws. Amongst the injured were citizens of Hungary as well, who were at the game to support the home team (DAC) and to protest the burning of a Hungarian flag at an earlier game.

Press reports from the scene said that the police failed to act against Slovan supporters who were throwing smoke bombs, noise grenades and other missiles on the pitch. According to 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. The Slovak government has later tried to dismiss the case by stating that "the (brutal) actions of the (Slovak) police was righteous and there's not point in further investigations" (said by Slovak prime minister Robert Fico) and alleged that people beaten by the police were in fact solely Hungarian extremists and troublemakers coming from Hungary.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. The Hungarian government and the Hungarian papers said the event was an anti-Hungarian attack. According to Ján Slota, who is known for hatred speech against Hungarians, the Hungarians provoked the Slovak policemen.

Conflict over a speech of Viktor Orbán

Hungarian opposition leader, chairman of Fidesz, Viktor Orbán delivered a (campaign) speech in Esztergom, Hungary on May 23, 2009, two weeks before the 2009 European elections. He said that the elections will decide how many members will represent the Hungarian nation of the Carpathian Basin in Brussels. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico declared that this statement was provocative, because it suggest a kind of territorial unity of the Hungarian-populated Carpathian Basin like "a fictive state", although the area currently consists of several independent states. Nationalist and extremist Ján Slota called these words "stinking of neonazism, neofascism", a claim which was refused by Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai.

The Slovak Parliament was called in an emergency session because of this issue, to protest against the speech of Orbán and Hungarian nationalism.

Use of Hungarian in Slovakia

Areas in Slovakia where Hungarians are at least 20%.

Language law

Main article: Language law of Slovakia

In 2009 the Slovak parliament passed a so-called "state language law", which asserts that conversation in most public situations, public offices and institutions must be held in Slovak. Use of another language, such as Hungarian in the conditions described by the law results in money penalty: a minimum of 100 and a maximum of 5000 euros. In point 24, §8, article 4 the law states that if a person doesn’t know the state language, conversation can be held, in any language that is spoken by both parties. This applies only to settlements where more than 20% of the population speak Hungarian. This means that the use of Hungarian in major cities where thousands of Hungarian speakers reside, yet they constitute much less than 20% of the population (namely the capital Bratislava and Kosice), is forbidden by the law at least in public health institutions.

The Economist described the law as one that "criminalises the use of Hungarian" as the mother tongue of 10.7% of the citizens of Slovakia is the Hungarian language, the usage of which will be punished by Slovakia in certain situations.

According the Slovak government, however, the law itself doesn't interfere with use of minority language in the republic. According to OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Knut Vollebæk the so called language law is accordance with the international law and Slovakia's international obligations, yet it doesn't show good will at all. Vollebæk had also several criticisms toward the language law, during its preparation. 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 Ministry of Foreign Affairs the report was released unchanged on their website. Spokesman Peter Stano: "It is obvious that MKP 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."

Hungary has expressed their worries about the law being discriminative against Hungarians in Slovakia. On the 31th of August a statue was unveiled at a national demonstration of Hungarians living in Slovakia protesting the language law. During the unveiling it was explained in a speech that "[The law] wants to chain Hungarians and cause muteness to them, and we can not allow that. That's the message of the statue"

According to Gordon Bajnai, Hungarian Prime Minister it is extremely harmful when certain extremist Slovak politicians use the issue of minorities to hide real problems. In early September the language law was brought to the attention of the White House by Ferenc Koszorus, co-chairman of the American-Hungarian Federation. Calling the law "unacceptable and discriminative", Koszorus emphasised the importance of democracy and respect for human and minority rights at the meeting with senior foreign policy-makers of the US Administration. Hungarian foreign minister Péter Balázs compared the creation of the language law to the politics of the Ceauşescu regime on the use of language.

Discrimination

According to Budapest Times "Section §3 of the law is openly discriminative, since it states that the Czech minority may use their native language without restrictions, which means that members of other minorities are prohibited from using theirs. As in many areas of Europe, including Slovakia, ethnic identity and the use of the native language are closely intertwined, which means that discrimination in native language use amounts to discrimination based on ethnicity."

Hungarian President banned from entering Slovakia

Main article: 2009 ban of Hungarian President from Slovakia

File:László Sólyom in Jakarta 2008.jpg

László Sólyom

The Elizabeth Bridge connecting Komárom, Hungary with Komárno, Slovakia. The bridge where President Sólyom planned to cross the border.

László Sólyom, the President of the Republic of Hungary planned a visit to Komárno (Hungarian: Révkomárom), a Slovakian town on the Hungarian border where he was about to unveil a new statue of the first king of Hungary, King Saint Stephen built from donations. The date of the dedication was set to August 21, 2009, the day after the national holiday of Hungary celebrating the formation of the Hungarian Kingdom by King Saint Stephen in the year 1000.

According to the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the visit was organised about a month beforehand, in June 2009 as it is customary for public visits to a foreign country, and the Slovak side did not raise any objections. Slovakia claims that this is not true and they were informed only a week before.

On August 19 the three major leaders of Slovakia, Ivan Gasparovic (head of state), Robert Fico (prime minister) and Ivan Paska (head of the parliament) stated that the visit is a deliberate provocation against Slovakia as the date coincides with the anniversary of the crushing of the Czechoslovakian Prague Spring by Warsaw Pact troops led by the Soviet Union, and as a Warsaw Pact country, the People's Republic of Hungary also took part in the invasion. An additional problem for them was that Sólyom did not plan to meet any Slovak delegates.

On August 20, Miroslav Lajčák, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia officially informed Antal Heizer, ambassador of Hungary in Bratislava that László Sólyom is advised against crossing the Slovak border. The next day the recommendation turned into a one-day ban by Prime Minister Robert Fico. The statement about the ban was sent to the embassy in the afternoon of August 21, hours before the planned unveiling. Slovakia is quoted to have stated that the authorities will not use physical force to prevent the President from entering the country (although the documents issued to the embassy did not contain such statements).

On the border Ján Packa, Executive of the Police of Slovakia along with Milan Marko and a great number of policemen were waiting for Sólyom.. President Sólyom did not enter Slovakia, saying he, as a lawyer and head of a state, respects law. He stopped on the middle of the bridge over the Danube leading from Hungarian Komárom to Slovakian Komárno and informed reporters and the media about the events from the Hungarian side of the border. He stated:

In a relation of two allied states, this step is unexplainable and inexplicable, with particular attention to the given reason of the ban stating that my presence constitutes a security risk.

— László Sólyom

I hope the hysteria of the highest state levels in the last days does not reflect the feelings of the Slovak nation.

— László Sólyom

The government of Hungary called the ban "unfounded" and its justification "deplorable" and "unacceptable".

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary plans to inform the EU and a broader international public about the events, as told by the minister, Péter Balázs, stating that the ministry plans greater actions than only talking to the ambassador because of this "rude" political action. According to him, the ban was not lawful, because the already given international permissions haven't been withdrawn and the embassy just got an "unfriendly" document, which would in theory have allowed Sólyom to enter Slovakia. He also said the Slovak diplomacy has turned international law "upside down" by leaving the international permissions while banning Sólyom personally, as a civilian.

However, according to der Standard, the European Commission does not want to concern itself with the case, while European Commission spokesman Michael Mann didn't want to answer the question if Slovakia acted according to international norms. According to political analyst Grigorij Mesežnikov commenting to the Slovak Spectator the incident is not only a bilateral problem because Slovakia disregarded the basic principles of the EU by denying entry, creating a problem that the EU will have to deal with. He also said that [the denial] "was an authorised action of the government, which is composed of political parties that systematically play the Hungarian card."

Attack on the Slovak embassy in Budapest

On August 26, 2009, two Molotov cocktails were thrown at the Slovak embassy in Budapest causing no casualties as the flammable fluids did not ignite or detonate.

Hungarian President László Sólyom condemned the action "as categorically as possible" on the same day, stating he is convinced that such violent actions are not acceptable under any circumstances and have an extremely harmful effect on the bilateral relations of the countries. László Sólyom hopes that the authorities will find the perpetrators as soon as possible so they must face the law for their actions.

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 offense". Ján Slota, chairman of government party SNS called the offense a terrorist attack.

Car of the Slovak ambassador to Hungary forced to the roadside

On August 28, 2009 a driver attempted to push the diplomatic car of Peter Weiss off the road while driving in the Budapest traffic. After the attacker swayed his car toward the diplomatic vehicle, he continued to assault verbally. No one was injured during the incident.

A short time after, the attackers were stopped by the Hungarian police not far from the incident. They were interrogated and the police searched through their house and car. The police investigated whether this incident is connected to the attack on the Slovak embassy of the previous day.

The Slovak side refused to comment on the issue, citing the fear of exacerbating the already strained relationship as the reason.

Anti-Hungarian statements by Ján Slota the leader of government party SNS

Ján Slota, chairman of Slovak government party SNS, according to whom "Hungarians are a tumour on the body of the Slovak nation that needs to be removed without delay".

Turul, a key symbol of Hungarian mythology. An "ugly parrot" according to Slota.

King Saint Stephen, first King of Hungary: "a clown on a horse" as said by Ján Slota, chairman of a government party of Slovakia.

As a result of the Slovak parliamentary elections of 2006 the extremist and nationalist Slovak National Party (SNS) has become a government power in Slovakia. Ján Slota, chairman of SNS is known for making crude anti-Hungarian statements. Because of the coalition of Slovak main governing party Smer with SNS, Smer had been suspended from the membership of the Party of European Socialists for two years.

Destroying Budapest by tanks

Probably drunk at a party rally on 5 March 1999, he reportedly 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.

Crooked-legged Hungarians

In a television debate a few days before the elections he allegedly quoted a Frankish bishop in an anti-Hungarian context:

“Back in 1248 a Frankish bishop visited the Carpathian Basin and said:

»As I was scanning this country, I was wondering how could God have given such a beautiful land to such ugly people.«

He meant the 'old Hungarians', because they were Mongoloid types with crooked legs and they owned such disgusting horses. Actually, small horses. This is what the bishop said, it is written. Exactly, it is written word by word. And now, after more than 800 years those 'Mongoloids' somehow disappeared. I don't know who showed them how to be civilised. But unfortunately, I think it was the Slavic blood. Unfortunately... And I really don't know if these Hungarians, that like to say about themselves that they are Hungarians, are really Hungarians. I think 90% of them has Slavic blood, and maybe 10%, or maybe just 0.1% has the 'old Hungarian' blood. But they still voluntarily report as fools to some Turuls and other insanities...”

— Ján Slota on television, June 2006

Hungarians: a 'tumor' on the body of the Slovak nation

In 2006, Italian Member of the European Parliament Michl Ebner created a compilation of Slota's comments of xenophobic nature and sent it via e-mail to all members of the Parliament. The eleven-page document includes this remark, made by Slota::

“Hungarians are a tumour on the body of the Slovak nation that needs to be removed without delay.”.

— Ján Slota

The same quote appeared in the Der Spiegel and various international media outlets, who reported Slota's words as “The Hungarians are a cancer in the body of the Slovak nation.”

Statements about Hungarian symbols and identity

Slota compared the indigenous Hungarian population of Slovakia to the Moroccan and Algerian immigrants to France:

“they are also all French, who are divided to the French, the immigrants and the foreigners.”
“I argue that they are not Hungarians. These are the Slovaks, who express themselves in Hungarian.”

— Ján Slota, to the SITA news agency, January 4, 2008

Pál Csáky, chairman of the Party of the Hungarian Coalition called the statement "primitive crudeness".

While Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány and his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico were meeting in Brussels, Ján Slota called the Turul, a Hungarian mythological falcon an "ugly parrot", and insulted the first King of Hungary, King Saint Stephen by calling him "a clown on a horse from Budapest", referring to the mounted statue of the king standing in the Buda Castle. The latter was on the occasion of a law about education, arguing with a Hungarian history book (containing the picture of the statue in question) in favor of the law.

Insulting the Hungarian foreign minister

Kinga Göncz, former Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, a "tousled haired woman" as called by Slota.

Slota repeatedly insulted the then Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kinga Göncz, among others by criticizing her hair and comparing her to Adolf Hitler.

We won't succumb to the pressure from our southern neighbor and Budapest: a tousled haired woman, a wretch is threatening us and asking questions from the Slovak prime minister, whose shoe heel is even at higher level than herself.
What they [Hungarians] are doing is the top of arrogance. I can compare her to Henlein and to that little mustached person in a Munich cellar. He had the same rhetorics as this woman. Perhaps her mustache is also starting to grow.

— Ján Slota

Constructing double crosses against the Turul

The double cross is a common symbol of the two countries. The coat of arms of Hungary (left) and of Slovakia (right) both contain it.

Slota started constructing double crosses along the Hungarian border "so they will know it is not the Upper Hungary where they arrive, but Slovakia" .

We will build double crosses all over Slovakia, also in the south, so we won't have to see the stupid Turul birds fly around Southern Slovakia.

— Ján Slota

Settlements with double crosses built by SNS

• Malacky (Hungarian: Malacka)
• Čerhov (Hungarian: Csörgő)
• Spišská Nová Ves (Hungarian: Igló)
• Lučenec (Hungarian: Losonc)
• Pavlovce

"Wise historism"

Since deputy prime minister Robert Fico declared the "wise historism" concept, the history books are getting rewritten in a faster pace than before, and in an increased "spirit of national pride". This "spirit of national pride" is determined by Matica Slovenská, which Krekovič, Mannová and Krekovičováare claim are mainly nothing else, but history falsifications. Matica is a private organization without public supervision, but nevertheless having extensive control over state education and cultural affairs in Slovakia. Such new inventions of theirs are the interpretation of Great Moravia as a (proto)-Slovak state, or the term "proto-Slovak" itself, along with the "refreshing" of many "old traditions", that in fact did not exist or were not Slovak before. The concept received heavy criticism in Slovakia pointing out that the term proto-Slovak cannot be found in any credible scientific publication, simply because it lacks any scientific basis. Miroslav Kusý Slovak political scientist explained that by adopting such scientifically questionable rhetoric Fico aims to "strengthen national consciousness by falsification of history". The resulting version of the Slovak history "in a spirit of national pride" has affected bilateral relations with Hungary at times when historical topics are concerned and also marred attempts at creating a common history book such as the one made by France and Germany.

See also

• Foreign relations of Hungary
• Foreign relations of Slovakia
• Hungarians in Slovakia

External links

• 65-page study about the tensions between the two countries (Hungarian Institute of International Affairs)
• Hungarian embassy in Bratislava (in Hungarian and Slovak only)
• Slovak embassy in Budapest