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Csaky: Relations With Hungary Will Be Good If SMK Is Part of Government
Tuesday 29 December 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 29 (TASR) - The probable winner of the upcoming Hungarian parliamentary elections and the next premier Viktor Orban won't have bad relations with a Slovak government in which the ethnic-Hungarian SMK party will take part, SMK chairman Pal Csaky told TASR on Tuesday.
"(It's) because we strive for peace in national affairs and Slovak-Hungarian relations. We play a critical and responsible role in that," said Csaky.
Csaky regards concerns over a victory for the right-wing Fidesz party in Hungary and a subsequent deterioration in Slovak-Hungarian relations as nothing more than paranoia. He pointed out that parliamentary elections will take place in many other countries as well. "We're part of the European Union and NATO, and we should think about co-operation. Slovakia is a small and not-so-significant country. Let's not have anyone pretend otherwise. Slovakia needs to work shoulder to shoulder with its neighbours, it's with Hungary that Slovakia has the longest border, so why are these artificially created childish worries appearing?" he said..
The SMK chairman thinks that Slovakia has suffered a moral devastation within its society. "One attribute that this devastation has wrought is irrelevant, unreal fears about Hungary, the so-called Hungarophobia. Such phobias are inappropriate, generated on purpose by irresponsible individuals in order to divert attention away from Slovakia's domestic problems," he said, adding that it isn't Slovak-Hungarian relations but unemployment, economic difficulties, the plundering of public property and the destruction of democracy in Slovakia that represent real issues to tackle.
Csaky thinks that the key to Slovak-Hungarian relations lies in Bratislava, as this is a city in which a strong and politically organised Hungarian minority lives. He sees one problem with Slovak Premier Robert Fico, who, according to him, hasn't kept his promise to maintain the status quo in minority policies. SMK is also concerned by what it sees as endless provocations on the part of the culture and education ministers. As a solution, it suggests a return to the model applied in 2006, when the party was part of the government.
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