donderdag 20 mei 2010

Carpathian warriors in campaign mode



Bust-up between the new Hungarian government and Slovakia on citizenship issue

IT TOOK only a few weeks for the freshly elected (and not yet incumbent) Hungarian government to further erode the country’s troublesome relations with Slovakia, its northern neighbour. Fidesz’s leader Viktor Orbán’s right-wing (still sort of a shadow-)cabinet has announced an imminent law which would allow some 3 million Hungarians living in neighbouring countries to get the Hungarian citizenship on an individual basis. As a parliamentary initiative of right-wing Fidesz group, the bill could be submitted for vote before the new government takes office next Friday.

The issue of granting citizenship to Hungarians living across the Hungarian borders is a historical debt of honour, Fidesz says, referring to the 2004 referendum which failed to put the matter on the parliamentary agenda due to low rate of participation. Under the new regulation, those of Hungarian ethnicity could apply for citizenship without being residents of the country - a possibility already granted to Hungarian non-citizens who do not come from the neighbouring countries. As the new cabinet’s foreign affairs minister János Martonyi outlined, citizenship could be obtained on individual claim and would not automatically entitle to vote in Hungary.

The announcement has sparked virulent opposition in Slovakia the government of which swaggered against the plan, threatening to give a ‘very severe response’ should the Hungarian parliament adopt the law. Amid full-swing election campaign Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has summoned the country’s Security Committee and sought the keep the incident in the limelight. While urging Mr Orbán to negotiate, Mr Fico has indicated that Slovakia considered its ethnic Hungarians’ double-citizenship a security risk. As a result, he said, the Slovak parliament may amend the constitution in a way that Slovaks obtaining Hungarian citizenship would lose their Slovak passport. Upon recalling its ambassador from Budapest, the Slovak government also voiced its intention to address international organisations such as the OSCE, saying the Hungarian step is in conflict with international law as well as with the basic treaty signed by the two countries 15 years ago.

Mr Orbán retorted that no negotiations should take place until his government was inaugurated and the new Slovak cabinet was in office.

Although Slovak law recognises the principle of double citizenship, Slovakia has the right to adopt a law to denationalize it’s citizens who are granted citizenship by other countries. This would follow a pattern shared by the Czech and Ukrainian law that (in principle) exclude double citizenship. However, the European practice tends to the opposite direction, with Austria, Romania and Germany giving ethnicity-based citizenship to their fellow nationals living across their borders (Croatia and Serbia also recognise this legal institution).
Furthermore, as a reputed political analyst, Martin Kugla argued in Slovakia’s Hospodárské Noviny newspaper, ethnic Hungarians living in Slovakia would constitute no threat to Slovakia’s sovereignty nor to it’s national security.

Just alike many others, this latest episode of the Hungarian-Slovak political wrestling (albeit being fought on the barricades of national interest) was born from domestic political interests of the respective parties.

Hungary’s new government has seized the opportunity to reaffirm its patriotic image in the face of Jobbik, an extreme-right party ringing chauvinistic bells (now in the Parliament) over Hungarians’ putative role in the region. A sonorous, patriotic upbeat may also help Fidesz divert attention from its grandiose economic plans which shall gradually get in tune with a bitter reality that offers little room for tax cuts.

On the other side of the Danube, Mr Fico must also feel somewhat relieved.
Slovakia’s PM (who has earned an ill fame in Europe by reaffirming the notorious ‘Benes-decrees’ and by enacting an anti-Hungarian linguistic regulation) was offered another chance to parade in the guise of a charismatic leader. Instead of dissecting his cabinets’ failures, the media now turns to the old theme of national interest, which is seemingly at odds with the feelings of ethnic-Hungarian fellow citizens. Mr Fico is apparently seeking to make up to voters with inclination to chauvinism in an effort to spare another four years in coalition with the extreme-right Slovak National Party. Extremist voters appear utterly important indeed: even the more moderate Chrsitian Democratic Union Party (Fico’s main rival) has joined the rally for them while dragging the dispute to the European Parliament.

After several years of arrogant, anti-Hungarian rhetoric, Mr Fico is now distressed to see his new Hungarian counterpart who doesn’t lag him when it comes to teeth, and whose response seems just as wise as Bratislava’s recent wrangling. Leaders of Hungarian minority parties in Slovakia have been warning Fidesz not to weaken their positions by awakening Slovak nationalist sentiments during the campaign - to no avail. Again, a special session of the Hungarian Parliament commemorating the Treaties of Trianon (which marked the grave of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the birth of Czechoslovakia) on the 4th of June may further weaken Hungarian parties in Slovakia, where elections are due on the 12th.

Whatever the outcome of the elections may be, ethic Hungarians in Slovakia will lose on the short run, just as all Hungarians and Slovaks who are craving solutions to slightly more substantial problems like energy dependency or unemployment.

1 opmerking:

  1. "to further erode the country’s troublesome relations with Slovakia"...

    i seriously doubt that any Hungarian government has to do anything for the deterioriation of the country's bilateral relations with Slovakia. To put it politely, this thing happens "by itself".

    the writer speaks as if his rather indifferent approach (totally in line with Hungarian foreign policy during the intermediate period of 1989-2010) could show up any result that could be considered as a modest improvement in the conditions of ethnic Hungarians.

    This conflict in my opinion could have been easily avoided if the EU had taken upon itself the task to mediate between the two parties. Despite continous appeals during the last five years by the Hungarian government, NGOs and citizens no international organisation or key regional power showed any sign of concern for the situation.

    After five years of ever more open anti-Hungarian Slovak policies and international disinterest, Hungary had to take the responsibility of making Slovakia understand that ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia are not unprotected or vulnerable and that at least Hungary will defend this minority from being forcedly assimilated through discriminative Slovak legislature.

    (btw being the first to comment on your blog makes me feel honored. i hope that this initiative will turn out as successfull_dv)

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