By Despite the good relations between the Hungarian and Slovakian governments, the past months indicated a new threat against the rights of ethnic minorities (primarily the Hungarian community) in Slovakia.
A planned modification of the language law leaked from the Ministry of Culture, led by the ultranationalist Slovak National Party (SNS). It would severely curtail linguistic rights by prescribing harsher sanctions (by increasing them) for the breach of the law and limiting the use of minority languages.
For instance, the new provisions would require the Slovakian text to be in the first place in the case of memorials, inscriptions and advertisements. Besides, school administration would be exclusively in Slovakian, disabling the issuance of bilingual certificates.
The new provisions would also exclude the use of minority languages at the post and in public transport. Finally, the current sanctions regime would be tightened by increasing the amount of punishment (the minimum level would be 1000 euros instead of 50 euros and the upper limit would be 20000 euros). Although the envisaged modifications seem to be unfeasible, they could lead to a chilling effect regarding the use of minority languages in Slovakia.
Thus, it is not surprising that there were negotiations between Hungarian and Slovakian politicians (including foreign ministers) in order to solve the situation.
After these negotiations, it turned out that the planned modifications were not against the Hungarian community, “just” to strengthen the state language. Despite these mitigation attempts, experts warned that the whole modification process had to be closely monitored by the Hungarian government. This warning seems to be justified because the tightening of the language law is still on the political agenda.
The Traps of the Ethnic-based Politics
The whole story highlights that the delicate relationship between the Hungarian and Slovakian governments can’t exclude the possibility of introducing anti-Hungarian measures, especially when the Slovakian counterpart is a coalition comprising far-right SNS as well. Therefore, Robert Fico has to balance between different interests in order to preserve the coalition. But – as political analyst Géza Tokár noted – if the Hungarian Alliance gained seats in the 2023 parliamentary elections, things would have been different now: the Hungarian party could be the new coalition partner instead of SNS.
The latter thought points out the negative impact of the Hungarian Alliance’s (and its predecessors’) absence from the Slovakian parliament, which is a long-standing issue for the Hungarian kin-state policy. For instance, many analysts argued that the failure of the 2024 European parliamentary elections would lead to the end of ethnic-based politics in Slovakia. This fear is not unfounded because – if we exclude the election results of the interethnic Most-Híd party – the predecessors of Hungarian Alliance have failed to surpass the electoral threshold (5%) in national parliamentary elections since 2006 and in European parliamentary elections since 2014. Thus, the latest election results can be regarded as a huge blow for the Hungarians in Slovakia because their proportion is approximately 8% of Slovakia’s population. There are several reasons for the failure; the most relevant ones are the lower voter turnout in southern Slovakia (Hungarians, the largest minority making up less than one-tenth of the republic’s population, they concentrated in southern border districts), the loss of significant potential votes to Slovakian parties, and the ideological conflicts between the platforms (Most-Híd: liberal vs. SMK: conservative) in the party. All these indicate that a decisive shift in the political mindset is inevitable to restore trust in ethnic-based politics.
To this end, the new leadership of the Hungarian Alliance should learn from past failures and renew the party.
First, instead of dealing with ideology, they should focus – without giving up the classic minority issues (e.g.: use of language and symbols, administrative divisions, question of autonomy etc.) – on common issues affecting all citizens in South Slovakia regardless of their ethnicity and leave behind personal conflicts. Secondly, the party should be associated with professionalism and problem-solving. With this approach, the Hungarian Alliance could get new voters and enter parliament without the danger of abandoning ethnic-based politics. All in all, the crucial question of next years is whether ethnic-based politics can regain its former “glory” in Slovakia because – as we can see from the recent language law affair – it is still relevant. And – despite other claims – Slovakian parties don’t take ethnic minority-related issues seriously.
