New Slovak bill would ban Hungarian language use on trains, buses, trams, and post offices

Hundreds of thousands of Hungarians live in Slovakia, a former territory of the Kingdom of Hungary, despite the numerous initiatives and legislation milestones that aimed to accelerate their assimilation. A new bill leaked by a Hungarian media outlet in Slovakia would ban Hungarian language use in Slovakia on trains and postal offices. Such a measure would be a considerable setback concerning minority rights in the EU member state.

Slovak government members made promises before

Napunk.sk, a Hungarian media outlet in Slovakia, acquired a draft of a Slovak language use bill made by the Slovak Cultural Ministry. The initiative would restrict Hungarian language use in the country.

According to Napunk, Martina Šimkovičová, the cultural minister of Slovakia nominated by the Slovak far-right nationalist SNS party, would introduce additional restrictions concerning minority language use in Slovakia. News about the planned modifications first emerged in October. Šimkovičová said the amendments would not have an anti-minority effect, so minorities should not be concerned because of the initiative.

Photo: FB/Orbán

Hungarian FM Péter Szijjártó also shared a statement then that his Slovak counterpart, Juraj Blanár, assured him that the new bill would not affect the language use of the minorities. The reason for and the aim of these new language regulations does not affect the representation and use of minority languages in any way, Blanár told Szijjártó in October. “So this thinking didn’t start because of the minority languages and isn’t aimed against them”, he added.

New language law would ban Hungarian language use on trains, buses, post offices

However, the document Napunk acquired contradicts both Šimkovičová’s and Blanár’s statements.

The worst part is that individuals and companies could be fined for breaching the law, and the minimum fine would be increased 20-fold. János Fiala-Butora, a human rights expert, said the bill is something experts warned the Slovak government against.

PM Orbán and PM Fico in Budapest in January. Photo: FB/Orbán

The bill prescribes that all memorial plaques, inscriptions, and ads should contain the Slovakian version with bigger letters in the first place. There was no such measure before. In Hungarian settlements, the name of the settlement was written in Hungarian in the first place.

Furthermore, you will not be able to use Hungarian in post offices and public transport. Instead, Slovak will be compulsory.

Higher fines and a setback

The new bill would increase the language use fines drastically. In the case of companies, the lowest limit of the penalty will be EUR 1,000, instead of EUR 50. The maximum would rise from EUR 2,500 to EUR 15,000.

Mr Fiala-Butora believes the modification would be a setback to the 1990s and it even has measures more severe than the 1995 language use law introduced by the Mečiar government, a cabinet that was dedicated to being anti-Hungarian.

Szijjártó hoped for the best

FM Szijjártó said in October that the Hungarian government monitored the possible amendments to the Slovak language law and expects no setbacks concerning minority rights. He also said they started professional consultations on it.

“… 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”, Szijjártó said then. 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.

Szijjártó highlighted there was a mutual trust between the Hungarian and the new Slovak government led by Orbán’s new European ally, Robert Fico.

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