national populism and slovak – hungarian relations in - MEK

Most Frequent Stereotypes Concerning Slovak–Hungarian Relations...hosts abroad as well as his foreign guests in Slovakia were regularly subjectedto listening to his harsh criticism of Slovakia (that is, if we accepthis own logic that criticizing the incumbent administration equals attackingthe state as such). The same applies to leaders of opposition parties whoafter the 2006 parliamentary elections considered requesting EU organs tomonitor the Slovak Republic on grounds of the country’s alleged anti-democraticdevelopment. But as soon as the status of national minorities is atstake, all Slovak politicians suddenly seem to agree that it is a domesticissue that should not be tackled abroad.A similar consensus among Slovak political players (but also mostmedia commentators and political analysts) prevailed in initial stages of thecase of battered student Hedviga Malinová. Before the 2006 parliamentaryelections, one of principal theses presented by Robert Fico was that‘Slovakia was not ruled by law’ because interests of the political establishmentpenetrated the economy, the judiciary and all other spheres of society.The new opposition embraced the same rhetoric after the elections, onlywith an opposite sign. Unfortunately, this rhetoric somehow did not applyto the case of Hedviga Malinová; here, any ‘interference’ by SMK–MKPleaders or expression of anxiety on the part of Hungarian government officialswas dismissed with an argument that ‘Slovakia is a country ruled bylaw that has independent courts of law and law enforcement organs whoseinvestigation and conclusions should be trusted’. Only after some investigativejournalists unearthed serious evidence questioning case investigators’independence did opposition leaders along with media commentatorsand political analysts slowly begin to change their position on the case.Stereotype 5: Geographic names must be in state languageSince the dispute over geographic names in textbooks for schools withHungarian as the language of instruction has several dimensions, we willdiscuss this issue in greater detail.A. Once again, it is easy to detect the already described tactics of pointingout ‘above-standard’ or ‘excessive’ demands presented by ethnicHungarians as Slovak government officials obviously strive to put the entirematter in exactly the opposite light than it actually is. First of all, fewSlovak citizens are aware that in the mentioned textbooks the geographicnames were previously indicated in Hungarian while Slovak equivalentswere featured in parentheses; likewise, few Slovak citizens are aware thatthe standard practice in all ‘civilized’ European countries is to use establishedtraditional geographic names, provided that they exist, of course; thatNational Populism and Slovak – Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006 – 2009. Forum Minority Research Institute Šamorín – Somorja, 2009283