Summarized from the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation (HTMH)’s 1996 annual report on transborder Hungarian minorities — one part of a five-part series circulated by A.J. Vadasz in September 1997 (section B is not present in the surviving copy). Other parts in this series: Transborder Hungarians: Serbia (Vojvodina) · Transborder Hungarians: Slovakia · Transborder Hungarians: The West · Transborder Hungarians: Carpato-Ukraine (Kárpátalja) · Transborder Hungarians: Romania (Erdély/Transylvania).

1. Demographics

The 1991 census showed 567296 Hungarian ethnics, a small increase over a 30 year period. It is however a shrinking proportion of the overall, from 12.5% to 10.76% over the same years, thought to be related to a higher birthrate among Slovaks.

2. Legal

Officially the position of Hungarians is related to the 1992 constitution, however as a practical matter laws, regulations- often in constitutional conflict- have curtailed minority rights, such as the Slovak language law, amendments to the penal code, jurisdictional revisions, law about foundations, use of national symbols. These have been brought about during 1995 and 1996. Though some purport to be in line with the constitution, mostly however are in conflict. The Slovak consitution is founded on a nationalist state and adopts the 1991 human and freedom letter of the 1991 assembly. Declares citizens’ fundamental and total rights. It declares (inter alia) that minority identity is not to be a handicap. The lack of implementation guarantees had been protested by the Hungarian political parties: no assurance of minority language schooling; it introduces the national language, without guaranteeing minority language usage in official or legal sense. The years since have shown these fears to be well founded. Neither did it provide for restitution of illegal property seizures prior to 1948, which were largely based on “collective responsibiity”. Due to international pressure the Moravcik government in 1994 made some concessions in the use of family names and locality designations, however fell far short of the European Union norms. In 1994 the Meciar government served notice of further restrictions in only recognizing individual, rather than collective rights. Additional measures purporting to be needed for State security have further threatened political freedom of expressions with severe penalty provisions. Some of these have been held in abeyance by Presidential order. A bilateral agreement with Hungary in 1995 was to restore many of the lost rights, however the National Council on March 26 1996 took exception to collective rights or autonomy – as suggested by th EU recommendation 1201.

These measures have also contributed to the detriment of Hungarian political representation in the long run, when the 1994 election’s results become ineffective. While Hungarian legislative representation largely reflects overall ratios (13.7% of mayors, 15% of jurisdictional legislatures), Hungarian participation in administration and civil service is far lower (3 to 6 %). Of the 30 member National Council, 5 are Hungarians.

3. Political

PARTIES. There are six Hungarian- based political parties, ranging in philosophy from the liberal to the Christian-democratic traditions. Because of many common objectives, they have formed a “Hungarian Coalition” in 1994. It finds itself in opposition with the Prime minister and his government, but has good rapport with the Slovak President.

4. Economics

Compared with the balance of Slovakia, the Hungarian- majority areas are more dependent on agriculture, less on industry. In spite of benign growing conditions, income is lower. Unemployment is higher. Properties seized from Germans or Hungarians before 1948 can not be returned to their owners; instead of assigning them to local jurisdictions, they have become properties of the central (e.g. Slovak) government. Major foreign capital investments are government- guided and have so far minimized flow into Hungarian communities.

5. Education

Attendance at Hungarian instruction schools is below demographic proportions. This is due to such factors as top-down “gerrymandering” (i.e. school district adjustments), lack of vocational training in Hungarian schools. The schools are under central, rather than local government control. Officials are assigned by the ministry. In 1994 they inroduced the “alternative instruction” concept, which denies the schools’ choice of instruction language. Strongly protested by Hungarian organizations as well as the Hungarian government, the order had been reduced in scope, but is still in partial use. In addition several Hungarian schoold administrators have been replaced with ethnic Slovaks. Many petty orders have irritated the Hungarian communities, such as replacement of the bilingual graduation certificates with Slovak.

College-level Hungarian participation is particularly scarce, as Hungarian graduates represent about half the proportion of overall diploma-holders. There has been some hope lately of an improvement, as some border, or near-border communities have established partnerships with Hungarian institutions of higher learning.

6. Culture

Umbrella organization for cultural activities is the CSEMADOK association. (Hungarian- Slovak Cultural Association.) It had been the conduit of State help for the arts: performing, literature, etc. On the theory that it is a citizens’ duty to help Slovak culure, the subsidy via CSEMADOK had been tangibly reduced. As an example subsidy for minority publications in 1994 was 17550 thousand SK, reduced to 3800 thopsand SK in 1995. As a result of the reduction in support, CSEMADOK had to dismiss half their staff in 1995. As further direction in cultural activities, in 1996 the Minister for Culture instructed all museums to change any Hungarian language signs into English. Two theaters: the Thalia in Kassa (Kosice) and the Jokai in Komarom (Komarno) havwe lost their endowment status. A broad campaign against Hungarian memorials ran into legal barriers, thus further projects have been stopped on environmental grounds. Since 1989 a number of other societies had been formed, serving specific interest groups, such as students, ecclesiastics, educators and scouting.

7. Churches

About 65% of Hungarian ethnics are Catholic, the balance protestant or Greek Catholic. The biggest problem is a diminishing number of pastors. At this rate within 10 years their number will halve. To help the situation, the “Jopasztor alapitvany” has appealed to Pope John Paul II to name a Hungarian bishop. This is opposed by Slovak Catholic interests and to date there had been no action. Nevertheless the Slovak Bishop Conference condemned the language law, which- they feel- will have a negative effect on church attendance. There had ben progress outside the hierarchy however through the formation of religious- oriented activities, such as the “Gloria”, an association of Hungarian priests, which publishes a weekly. A “Hungarian Religious Education Center” was also established.

8. Media

Slovak radio and TV offers limited amount of programs: in the case of TV it amounts to 3 hours monthly. Among the printed media is the daily “Uj Szo”, which enjoys wide readership. The number of periodicals has shrunk from about 26 to 10 due to the approx. three to one reduction of government support starting in 1995

9. Majority

ENVIRONMENT. The last few years have brought about a marked deterioration in the attitude towards minorities: encouraged by a nationalistic government, the public attitude has also been shifted towards diffidence. The present government discourages even dialog with minorities or with the political opposition. Interestingly some of the Slovak press has pointed to the pitfalls of such attitudes.