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SMK: Slovak Constitution Makes Hungarians Second-Class Citizens
Sunday 16 May 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, May 16 (TASR) - If Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) is wondering why some ethnic-Hungarians living in Slovakia are interested in gaining Hungarian citizenship on top of Slovak, he should take a look at the preamble of the Slovak Constitution, ethnic-Hungarian SMK party spokesperson Eva Dunajska told TASR on Sunday.
Dunajska was reacting to Fico's appearance on public-service Slovak Television (STV) political programme 'O pat minut dvanast' (Five Minutes to Twelve) on the same day. She said that the Slovak Constitution positions ethnic-Hungarians in Slovakia into the status of second-class citizens. [The preamble begins with the words: "We, the Slovak nation..." - ed. note.]
Dunajska also complained about the situation of the Hungarian ethnic minority in Slovakia, claiming that legal guarantees for ethnic minorities in Slovakia are perhaps lower than anywhere else in Europe, including Romania and Serbia. "Slovakia has even worsened this level by adopting the primitive State Language Act (last year) and by its constant attacks on Hungarians," she said, adding that Fico would be better to create positive atmosphere for minorities than disseminating hysteria.
In addition, she called for Fico to initiate revoking of the State Language Act, and apologise to Hedviga Malinova [still-unresolved case of a young woman who claimed to be beaten for speaking Hungarian in Nitra but subsequent police investigation came to the conclusion that she apparently lied - ed. note] and fans of the DAC Dunajska Streda football club [who were beaten by police hoplites in an intervention against rowdying hooligans, among them extremist Hungarian nationals, at a premier league match in Dunajska Streda (Trnava region) in November 2008 - ed. note].
Hungary's intention to adopt a law on dual citizenship for ethnic Hungarians living in neighbouring countries was presented to Slovakia by incoming Hungarian foreign affairs minister Janos Martonyi during a visit to Bratislava earlier this week. Shortly after meeting Slovak Foreign Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajcak, Martonyi went to see SMK chairman Pal Csaky. SMK is widely viewed as more radical of the two ethnic-Hungarian parties in Slovakia (the other being Most-Hid, which was not part of Martonyi's itinerary).
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