Hungary’s foreign minister addresses Slovakia’s language law: protecting ethnic minorities amid rising tensions

Hungary’s government has so far taken all the necessary steps in connection with Slovakia’s new language law, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Budapest on Monday, adding that the government would continue to work to ensure that the law has no negative impact on ethnic Hungarians.

Szijjártó talks about Slovakia’s language law

Speaking at a hearing of parliament’s national cohesion committee, Szijjártó noted that in 2015, Ukraine curbed the ethnic Hungarian minority’s right to the use of its mother tongue.

“And we are also hearing reports of the amendment of the language law in Slovakia, so we started professional consultations on it on time,” he said.

Szijjártó said he was in constant contact with Juraj Blanar, his Slovak counterpart, on a number of issues, including the language law. “He told me that the reason for and the aim of these new language regulations does not affect the representation and use of minority languages in any way,” Szijjártó said. “So this thinking didn’t start because of the minority languages and isn’t aimed against them.”

He said Blanar had told him that the aim was to protect the Slovak language from “external influences that arise from global changes enabling an increasingly rapid flow of information”.

“If that’s the aim, then it’s reassuring,” Szijjártó said. “But usually it’s not the goals but rather the execution that determines the outcome, so we agreed to continue consulting as the bill progresses so as to avoid an aspect in the law that could have a negative effect on the use of the Hungarian language.”

He noted that Slovakia’s government has an ethnic Hungarian minority commissioner, Ákos Horony, who is in constant talks with the culture ministry, which is in charge of the bill.

He said the mutual trust between Hungary and Slovakia provided a sound basis for avoiding a repeat of what happened in the case of ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine when it comes to the Slovak language law.

Meanwhile, Szijjártó said the Hungarian government was doing all it could to ensure that Hungarian communities beyond the border can live in their place of birth.

Szijjártó said policy for Hungarians beyond the border was at the heart of Hungary’s foreign policy, which was natural given that “Hungary’s borders do not coincide with the borders of the nation”.

He said the survival of ethnic Hungarians beyond the border meant the enforcement of minority rights, a guarantee of unhindered contact between ethnic communities and the motherland as well as constant economic support for Hungarians beyond the border.

“Overall I can say that our relations with neighbouring countries are better now than they were at the beginning of the year,” the minister said. “Unfortunately this isn’t the case with each country, but overall I would say this is a realistic assessment.”

Szijjártó said the Hungarian government is supporting 61,303 ethnic Hungarian businesses this year. The 222.1 billion forints spent on economic development schemes in ethnic Hungarian communities since 2014 has generated 431.6 billion forints’ (EUR 1.1bn) worth of investments, the minister said.

He said it was crucial for Hungary’s neighbouring countries to join the Schengen area, and welcomed that 35 border crossing points have been opened since 2010, with ten more set to open between now and 2026.

Szijjártó said that among the neighbouring ethnic Hungarian communities, Vojvodina Hungarians enjoyed the most rights and received the fairest treatment by the Serbian government.

The minister also mentioned the scholarship programmes offered to Hungarians beyond the border, and noted that the government has allocated hundreds of millions of forints towards cultural programmes and the preservation of ethnic Hungarian monuments in recent years.

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