Politics of the past: the use and abuse of history - Socialists ...

The Historical Dimension
of the Relations between
Hungarians and Slovaks
In the years before Slovakia joined the European Union, there were
primarily two minority issues it had to deal with: The huge problems
of its large Roma population and the further integration of its citizens
of Hungarian origin. The Roma, victims of social exclusion and discrimination,
had much difficulty in coping with the social economic
transformation and were the first to be hit by cuts in social spending.
The Hungarian minority, represented by the Party of the
Hungarian Coalition (SMK-MKP), was in a stronger position because
of its participation in the centre-left and centre-right Dzurinda
governments, especially since the SMK-MKP occupied the position
of Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs and Minorities. Commitments
made by these governments to improve the situation of
the Roma were never really followed up. That being said, this special
report concentrates on the historical dimension of the minority
debate within Slovakia and how this affects the bilateral relations
between Slovakia and Hungary.
Tensions with the Hungarian minority living in Slovakia and between
the two neighbouring countries arose after the parliamentary elections
in 2006 when the Social Democratic Party (SMER), with
Robert Fico as Prime Minister, formed a coalition with the far-right
Slovak National Party (SNS) and the nationalistic People’s Party-
Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), and left the SMK-
MKP in the opposition. The Party of European Socialists (PES)
suspended SMER’s candidacy in October 2006 and the internal
situation in Slovakia also affected the social democratic and Socialist
Group in the European Parliament. The Group leadership
decided not to remain passive but brought the members of the Slovak
and Hungarian delegations together in a working group.
Hannes Swoboda, who was appointed chairman, and Jan Marinus
Wiersma, former EP rapporteur for Slovakia’s accession to the EU,
were given the task of organizing the work.
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The Editors