Hungarians in Slovakia
Encyclopedia
Hungarians in Slovakia
are the largest ethnic minority of the country, numbering 520,528 people or 9.7% of population (2001 census). They are concentrated mostly in the southern part of the country, near the border with Hungary
. Averaged on district level, they form the majority in two districts: Komárno
and Dunajská Streda
.
in the Western Front in 1918, the Treaty of Trianon
was signed between the winning Entente powers and Hungary in 1920, at the Paris Peace Conference. In consideration of the strategic and economic interests of their new ally Czechoslovakia, the victorious allies set the Czechoslovak-Hungarian border further south than the Slovak-Hungarian language border. Consequently, the newly created state annexed areas that were overwhelmingly ethnic Hungarian.
When Czechoslovakia was established, many Slovak-language schools were established in Slovak lands, while some Hungarian-language schools in chiefly Hungarian regions remained Hungarian and some German schools in largely German regions remained German. The Hungarians, for example, had 31 kindergartens, 806 elementary schools, 46 secondary schools, and 576 Hungarian libraries at schools in the 1930s. A Department of Hungarian literature
was created at the Charles University of Prague. The number of Hungarian elementary schools increased from 720 in 1923/1924 to the above number 806. The Hungarian University in Bratislava
was closed after the Czechoslovak occupation of the town.
All censuses from the period are disputed, and some give conflicting data. For example, according to the Czechoslovak censuses, 15-20% of the population in Košice was Hungarian. During the parliamentary elections, however, the ethnic Hungarian parties received 35-45% of the total votes (excluding those Hungarians who voted for the Communists or the Social Democrats). The fact that a high percentage of bilingual, mixed "Slovak-Hungarian" persons could claim both Slovak and Hungarian ethnicity complicated matters.
Some authors interpreted the difference between the 1910 census and the 1930 census as follows: the decrease between 1918 and 1924 of 106,000 people was due to those who were expelled from Czechoslovakia or fled to Hungary after World War I, when the state authorities refused to grant Czechoslovak citizenship to a disproportionate number of Hungarians. Later, when they added 'Jewish' as a separate ethnicity, there was an apparent decrease in the number and percentage of Hungarians (some of whom were Jews and self-identified as such.) Slovak sources acknowledge that many Hungarian teachers and civil clerks were forced to leave Czechoslovakia or left for Hungary voluntarily. The numbers are confusing but the censuses do show a rapid decline in the number of Hungarians. Two famous examples of people forced to leave were the families of Béla Hamvas
and Albert Szent-Györgyi
. The numerous refugees (including even more from the newly created Romania
) necessitated the construction of new housing projects in Budapest
(Mária-Valéria telep, Pongrácz-telep), which gave shelter to refugees numbering at least in the tens of thousands.
, Czechoslovakia was recreated. Some politicians intended to completely remove the ethnic German and Hungarian minorities from the territory of Czechoslovakia via expulsion or ethnic cleansing
. Many citizens considered both minorities collectively to be "war criminals", because representatives from those two minorities had supported redrawing the borders of Czechoslovakia before World War II, via the Munich Agreement
and the first Vienna Award. In addition, Czechs were suspicious of ethnic German political activity before the war. They also believed that the presence of so many ethnic Germans had encouraged Nazi Germany in its pan-German visions. In 1945, President Edvard Beneš
revoked the citizenship of ethnic Germans and Hungarians by decree #33, except for those with an active anti-fascist past (see Beneš Decrees
).
). While Czechoslovakia expelled ethnic Germans, the Allies prevented a unilateral expulsion of Hungarians. They did agree to a forced population exchange between Czechoslovakia and Hungary, one which was initially rejected by Hungary. This population exchange proceeded by an agreement whereby 55,487; 74,407; 76,604 or 89,660 Hungarians from Slovakia were exchanged for 60,000; 71,787; or 73,200 Slovaks from Hungary (the exact number depends on the source.) Slovaks leaving Hungary moved voluntarily, but Czechoslovakia forced Hungarians out of their nation.
After expulsion of the Germans, Czechoslovakia found it had a labor shortage, especially of farmers in the Sudetenland
. As a result, the Czechoslovak government deported more than 44,129 Hungarians from Slovakia to the Sudetenland for forced labor between 1945 and 1948. Some 2,489 were resettled voluntarily and received houses, good pay and citizenship in return. Later on, from November 19, 1946 to September 30, 1946, the government resettled the remaining 41,666 by force, with the Police and Army transporting them like "livestock" in rail cars. The Hungarians were required to work as indentured laborers, often offered in village markets to the new Czech settlers of the Sudetenland.
These conditions eased slowly. After a few years, the resettled Hungarians started to return to their homes in Slovakia. By 1948 some 18,536 had returned, causing conflicts over the ownership of their original houses, since Slovak colonists had often taken them over. By 1950 the majority of indentured Hungarians had returned to Slovakia. The status of Hungarians in Czechoslovakia was resolved, and the government again gave citizenship to ethnic Hungarians.
gave the Slovaks equal rights and demanded that Czechoslovakia offer equivalent rights to Hungarians within its borders.
In the spring and summer of 1945, the Czech government in exile approved a series of decrees that stripped Hungarians of property and all civil rights. In 1946 in Czechoslovakia, the process of "Reslovakization" was implemented with the objective of eliminating the Magyar nationality. It basically required the acceptance of Slovak nationality. Ethnic Hungarians were pressured to have their nationality officially changed to Slovak, otherwise they were dropped from the pension
, social and healthcare system. Since Hungarians in Slovakia were temporarily deprived of many rights at that time (see Beneš decrees
), as many as some 400,000 (sources differ) Hungarians applied for, and 344,609 Hungarians received, a re-Slovakization certificate and thereby Czechoslovak citizenship.
After Eduard Beneš was out of office, the next Czechoslovak government issued decree No. 76/1948 on April 13, 1948, allowing those Hungarians still living in Czechoslovakia, to reinstate Czechoslovak citizenship. A year later, Hungarians were allowed to send their children to Hungarian-language schools, which reopened for the first time since 1945. Most re-Slovakized Hungarians gradually readopted their Hungarian nationality. As a result, the re-Slovakization commission ceased operations in December 1948.
Despite promises to settle the issue of the Hungarians in Slovakia, in 1948 Czech and Slovak ruling circles still maintained the hope that they could deport the Hungarians from Slovakia. According to a 1948 poll conducted among the Slovak population, 55% were for resettlement (deportation) of the Hungarians, 24% said "don't know", and 21% were against. Under slogans related to the struggle with "class enemies", the process of dispersing dense Hungarian settlements continued in 1948 and 1949. By October 1949, the government prepared to deport 600 Hungarian families. Those Hungarians remaining in Slovakia were subjected to heavy pressure to assimilate, including the forced enrollment of Hungarian children in Slovak schools.
In the 1950 census the number of Hungarians in Slovakia decreased by 240,000 in comparison to 1930. By 1961 census it increased by 164,244 to 518,776. The low number in the 1950 census is likely due to the re-Slovakization; the higher number in the 1961 census is due to the fact that the re-Slovakization was cancelled .
The number of Hungarians in Slovakia increased from 518,782 in 1961 to 567,296 in 1991. The number of self-identified Hungarians in Slovakia decreased between 1991 and 2001, due in part to low birth rates, emigration and introduction of new ethnic categories, such as the Roma. Also, between 1961 and 1991 Hungarians had a significantly lower birth rate than the Slovak majority (which in the meantime had increased from about 3.5 million to 4.5 million), contributing to the drop in the Hungarian percentage of the population.
of 1989, Czechia and Slovakia separated peacefully in the Velvet Divorce of 1993. Following the independence of Slovakia, the situation of the Hungarian minority worsened, especially under the reign of Slovak Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar
(1993-March 1994 and December 1994-1998).
An official language law required the use of the Slovak language not only in official communications but also in everyday commerce, in the administration of religious bodies, and even in the realm of what is normally considered private interaction, for example, communications between patient and physician. On January 23, 2007, the local broadcasting committee shut down BBC's radio broadcasting for using English, and cited the language law as the reason.
Especially in Slovakia's ethnic Hungarian areas, critics have attacked the administrative division of Slovakia as a case of gerrymandering
, designed so that in all eight regions
, Hungarians are in the minority. Under the 1996 law of reorganization, only two districts
(Dunajská Streda
and Komárno
) have a Hungarian-majority population. While also done to maximize the success of the party HZDS, the gerrymandering in ethnic Hungarian areas worked to minimize the Hungarians' voting power. In all eight regions
, Hungarians are in the minority, though five regions have Hungarian populations within the 10 to 30 per cent range. The Slovak government established new territorial districts from north to south, dividing the Hungarian community into five administrative units, where they became a minority in each administrative unit. The Hungarian community saw a substantial loss of political influence in this gerrymandering.
On March 12, 1997, the Undersecretary of Education sent a circular to the heads of the school districts, ordering that in Hungarian-language schools, the Slovak language should be taught exclusively by native speakers. The same requirement for native Slovak-language speakers applied to teaching of geography and history in non-Slovak schools. In 1998 this measure was repealed by the Mikuláš Dzurinda
government.
On April 10, 2008 the Hungarian Coalition Party (MKP) voted with the governing Smer and SNS
supporting the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon
. This is the result of an alleged political bargain: Robert Fico
promised to change the Slovak education law that would have drastically limited the Hungarian minority's usage of their native language in education facilities. The two Slovak opposition parties saw this as a betrayal, because originally the whole Slovak opposition had planned to boycott the vote to protest a new press code that limited the freedom of the press
in Slovakia.
The 1992 Slovak constitution is derived from the concept of the Slovak nation state. The preamble of the Constitution, however, cites Slovaks and ethnic minorities as the constituency. Moreover, the rights of the diverse minorities are protected by the Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights
, and various other legally binding documents. The Party of the Hungarian Coalition
is represented in Parliament and was part of the government coalition from 1998 to 2006.
The Constitution also declares that Slovak is the state language on the territory of the Slovak Republic. Make this rules concrete, the 1995 Language Law declares that the State language has a priority over other languages applied on the whole territory of the Slovak Republic. The 2009 amendment of the language law retricts the use of minority languages, and extend the obligatory use of the state language, e.g. in communities where the number of minority speaker is less than 20% of the population. Under the 2009 amendment a fine up to 5000 euros may be imposed on those committing a misdemeanour in relation to the use of the state language.
In 1995, a so-called Basic Treaty was signed between Hungary and Slovakia, regarded by the US and leading European powers as a pre-condition for these countries to join NATO and the EU. In the basic treaty the Hungary and Slovakia undertook a wide range of legal obligations among others the acceptance of recommendation 1201 of the European Council which in its article 11 states that 'in the regions where they are in a majority the persons belonging to a national minority shall have the right to have at their disposal appropriate local or autonomous authorities or to have a special status, matching the specific historical and territorial situation and in accordance with the domestic legislation of the state.'
After the regions of Slovakia
became autonomous in 2002(?), the SMK was able to take power in the Nitra Region
. It became part of the ruling coalition in several other regions. Since the new administrative system was put in place in 1996, the SMK has asked for the creation of a Hungarian-majority Komárno
county. Although a territorial unit of the same name existed
before 1918, the borders proposed by the SMK are significantly different. The proposed region would encompass a long slice of southern Slovakia, with the explicit aim to create an administrative unit with an ethnic Hungarian majority. Hungarian minority politicians and intellectuals are convinced that such an administrative unit is essential for the long-term survival of the Hungarian minority. The Slovak government has so far refused to change the boundaries of the administrative units, and ethnic Hungarians continue as minorities in each.
According to Sabrina P. Ramet, professor of international studies at the University of Washington, who refers to situation under Vladimír Mečiar's administration between 1994 and 1998:
The coalition formed after the parliamentary elections in 2006 saw the Slovak National Party headed by Ján Slota
(frequently described as ultra-nationalist
, right-wing
extremist
) become a member of the ruling coalition, led by the allegedly social-democratic Smer party. After its signing of a coalition treaty with far-right extremist party SNS
, the Smer's Social-Democratic self-identification was questioned.
In August 2006, a few incidents motivated by ethnic hatred
caused diplomatic tensions between Slovakia and Hungary. Mainstream Hungarian and Slovak media blamed Slota's anti-Hungarian statements from the early summer for the worsening ethnic relations. The Party of European Socialists
, with which the Smer is affiliated, regards SNS as a party of the racist far-right. It reacted to news of the coalition by expressing grave concern. The PES suspended Smer's membership on 12 October 2006 and decided to review the situation in June 2007. The decision was then extended until February 2008, when Smer's candidacy was readmitted by PES. On 27 September 2007, the Slovak parliament reconfirmed the Beneš decrees, appearing to legitimize the historic accusation of collective guilt and deportation of Hungarians and Germans
from Czechoslovakia
after World War II
.
In May 2010, the newly-appointed second Viktor Orbán
's cabinet in Hungary
initiated a bill on dual citizenship, granting Hungarian passports to members of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia, purportedly aimed at offsetting the harmful effects of the Treaty of Trianon
, and raising a huge controversy between Hungary and Slovakia
. Though János Martonyi
, the new foreign minister, visited his Slovak colleague to discuss the dual citizenship, Robert Fico however stated that since Fidesz
and the new government did not want to negotiate on the issue, this would be a question of national security. Ján Slota Slovak government member for the Slovak National Party, fears that Hungary wants to attack Slovakia and considered the situation as a "beginning of a war conflict". The designate Prime Minister Viktor Orbán
laid down firmly that he considers Slovak hysteria as part of the campaign. As a response to change in Hungarian citizenship law, the National Council of the Slovak Republic
approved on May 26, 2010 a law stating that if a Slovak citizen applies for citizenship of another country then he/she will lose his/her Slovak one.
, Slovakia , in Budapest
, Hungary and in Brussels
, Belgium
.
s inclusive, use the Hungarian language as the main language of education. Nearly 200 schools use both Slovak and Hungarian. In 2004, the J. Selye University
of Komárno was the first state-financed Hungarian-language
university to be opened outside Hungary.
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
are the largest ethnic minority of the country, numbering 520,528 people or 9.7% of population (2001 census). They are concentrated mostly in the southern part of the country, near the border with Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. Averaged on district level, they form the majority in two districts: Komárno
Komárno District
Komárno District is a district inthe Nitra Region of western Slovakia.Until 1918, the district was mostly part of the Hungarian county of Komárom....
and Dunajská Streda
Dunajská Streda District
Dunajská Streda District is a district in the Trnava Region of western Slovakia....
.
History
Origins of the Hungarian minority in Czechoslovakia
After the defeat of the Central PowersCentral Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
in the Western Front in 1918, the Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...
was signed between the winning Entente powers and Hungary in 1920, at the Paris Peace Conference. In consideration of the strategic and economic interests of their new ally Czechoslovakia, the victorious allies set the Czechoslovak-Hungarian border further south than the Slovak-Hungarian language border. Consequently, the newly created state annexed areas that were overwhelmingly ethnic Hungarian.
When Czechoslovakia was established, many Slovak-language schools were established in Slovak lands, while some Hungarian-language schools in chiefly Hungarian regions remained Hungarian and some German schools in largely German regions remained German. The Hungarians, for example, had 31 kindergartens, 806 elementary schools, 46 secondary schools, and 576 Hungarian libraries at schools in the 1930s. A Department of Hungarian literature
Hungarian literature
Hungarian literature is literature written in the Hungarian language, predominantly by Hungarians.There is a limited amount of Old Hungarian literature dating to between the late 12th and the early 16th centuries...
was created at the Charles University of Prague. The number of Hungarian elementary schools increased from 720 in 1923/1924 to the above number 806. The Hungarian University in Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
was closed after the Czechoslovak occupation of the town.
Population statistics before and immediately after the end of World War I
According to the 1910 census conducted in Austria–Hungary, there were 884,309 ethnic Hungarians, constituting 30.2% of the population, in what is now Slovakia. The Czechoslovak census of 1930 recorded 571,952 Hungarians. (In the 2001 census, by contrast, the percentage of ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia was 9.7%, a decrease of two thirds in percentage but not in absolute number, which remained roughly the same.)All censuses from the period are disputed, and some give conflicting data. For example, according to the Czechoslovak censuses, 15-20% of the population in Košice was Hungarian. During the parliamentary elections, however, the ethnic Hungarian parties received 35-45% of the total votes (excluding those Hungarians who voted for the Communists or the Social Democrats). The fact that a high percentage of bilingual, mixed "Slovak-Hungarian" persons could claim both Slovak and Hungarian ethnicity complicated matters.
Some authors interpreted the difference between the 1910 census and the 1930 census as follows: the decrease between 1918 and 1924 of 106,000 people was due to those who were expelled from Czechoslovakia or fled to Hungary after World War I, when the state authorities refused to grant Czechoslovak citizenship to a disproportionate number of Hungarians. Later, when they added 'Jewish' as a separate ethnicity, there was an apparent decrease in the number and percentage of Hungarians (some of whom were Jews and self-identified as such.) Slovak sources acknowledge that many Hungarian teachers and civil clerks were forced to leave Czechoslovakia or left for Hungary voluntarily. The numbers are confusing but the censuses do show a rapid decline in the number of Hungarians. Two famous examples of people forced to leave were the families of Béla Hamvas
Béla Hamvas
Béla Hamvas was a Hungarian writer, philosopher, and social critic. He was the first thinker to introduce the Traditionalist School of René Guénon to Hungary.-Biography:...
and Albert Szent-Györgyi
Albert Szent-Györgyi
Albert Szent-Györgyi de Nagyrápolt was a Hungarian physiologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937. He is credited with discovering vitamin C and the components and reactions of the citric acid cycle...
. The numerous refugees (including even more from the newly created Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
) necessitated the construction of new housing projects in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
(Mária-Valéria telep, Pongrácz-telep), which gave shelter to refugees numbering at least in the tens of thousands.
The aftermath of World War II
In 1945, at the end of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Czechoslovakia was recreated. Some politicians intended to completely remove the ethnic German and Hungarian minorities from the territory of Czechoslovakia via expulsion or ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
. Many citizens considered both minorities collectively to be "war criminals", because representatives from those two minorities had supported redrawing the borders of Czechoslovakia before World War II, via the Munich Agreement
Munich Agreement
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...
and the first Vienna Award. In addition, Czechs were suspicious of ethnic German political activity before the war. They also believed that the presence of so many ethnic Germans had encouraged Nazi Germany in its pan-German visions. In 1945, President Edvard Beneš
Edvard Beneš
Edvard Beneš was a leader of the Czechoslovak independence movement, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the second President of Czechoslovakia. He was known to be a skilled diplomat.- Youth :...
revoked the citizenship of ethnic Germans and Hungarians by decree #33, except for those with an active anti-fascist past (see Beneš Decrees
Beneš decrees
Decrees of the President of the Republic , more commonly known as the Beneš decrees, were a series of laws that were drafted by the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile in the absence of the Czechoslovak parliament during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II and issued by President...
).
Population exchanges
Immediately at the end of World War II, some 30,000 Hungarians left the formerly Hungarian re-annexed territories of southern Slovakia (see Vienna AwardsVienna Awards
The Vienna Awards are two arbitral awards by which arbiters of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy sought to enforce peacefully the claims of Hungary on territory it had lost in 1920 when it signed the Treaty of Trianon...
). While Czechoslovakia expelled ethnic Germans, the Allies prevented a unilateral expulsion of Hungarians. They did agree to a forced population exchange between Czechoslovakia and Hungary, one which was initially rejected by Hungary. This population exchange proceeded by an agreement whereby 55,487; 74,407; 76,604 or 89,660 Hungarians from Slovakia were exchanged for 60,000; 71,787; or 73,200 Slovaks from Hungary (the exact number depends on the source.) Slovaks leaving Hungary moved voluntarily, but Czechoslovakia forced Hungarians out of their nation.
After expulsion of the Germans, Czechoslovakia found it had a labor shortage, especially of farmers in the Sudetenland
Sudetenland
Sudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the northern, southwest and western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia being within Czechoslovakia.The...
. As a result, the Czechoslovak government deported more than 44,129 Hungarians from Slovakia to the Sudetenland for forced labor between 1945 and 1948. Some 2,489 were resettled voluntarily and received houses, good pay and citizenship in return. Later on, from November 19, 1946 to September 30, 1946, the government resettled the remaining 41,666 by force, with the Police and Army transporting them like "livestock" in rail cars. The Hungarians were required to work as indentured laborers, often offered in village markets to the new Czech settlers of the Sudetenland.
These conditions eased slowly. After a few years, the resettled Hungarians started to return to their homes in Slovakia. By 1948 some 18,536 had returned, causing conflicts over the ownership of their original houses, since Slovak colonists had often taken them over. By 1950 the majority of indentured Hungarians had returned to Slovakia. The status of Hungarians in Czechoslovakia was resolved, and the government again gave citizenship to ethnic Hungarians.
Slovakization
Materials from Russian archives prove how insistent the Czechoslovak government was on destroying the Hungarian minority in Slovakia. HungaryHungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
gave the Slovaks equal rights and demanded that Czechoslovakia offer equivalent rights to Hungarians within its borders.
In the spring and summer of 1945, the Czech government in exile approved a series of decrees that stripped Hungarians of property and all civil rights. In 1946 in Czechoslovakia, the process of "Reslovakization" was implemented with the objective of eliminating the Magyar nationality. It basically required the acceptance of Slovak nationality. Ethnic Hungarians were pressured to have their nationality officially changed to Slovak, otherwise they were dropped from the pension
Pension system
-Pension systems in various countries:*ANSES *Superannuation in Australia*Social Security *Canada Pension Plan*Chile pension system*Indian pension system*KiwiSaver *Social security *UK Pension Provision...
, social and healthcare system. Since Hungarians in Slovakia were temporarily deprived of many rights at that time (see Beneš decrees
Beneš decrees
Decrees of the President of the Republic , more commonly known as the Beneš decrees, were a series of laws that were drafted by the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile in the absence of the Czechoslovak parliament during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II and issued by President...
), as many as some 400,000 (sources differ) Hungarians applied for, and 344,609 Hungarians received, a re-Slovakization certificate and thereby Czechoslovak citizenship.
After Eduard Beneš was out of office, the next Czechoslovak government issued decree No. 76/1948 on April 13, 1948, allowing those Hungarians still living in Czechoslovakia, to reinstate Czechoslovak citizenship. A year later, Hungarians were allowed to send their children to Hungarian-language schools, which reopened for the first time since 1945. Most re-Slovakized Hungarians gradually readopted their Hungarian nationality. As a result, the re-Slovakization commission ceased operations in December 1948.
Despite promises to settle the issue of the Hungarians in Slovakia, in 1948 Czech and Slovak ruling circles still maintained the hope that they could deport the Hungarians from Slovakia. According to a 1948 poll conducted among the Slovak population, 55% were for resettlement (deportation) of the Hungarians, 24% said "don't know", and 21% were against. Under slogans related to the struggle with "class enemies", the process of dispersing dense Hungarian settlements continued in 1948 and 1949. By October 1949, the government prepared to deport 600 Hungarian families. Those Hungarians remaining in Slovakia were subjected to heavy pressure to assimilate, including the forced enrollment of Hungarian children in Slovak schools.
Population statistics after World War II
The number of Hungarians in Slovakia increased from 518,782 in 1961 to 567,296 in 1991. The number of self-identified Hungarians in Slovakia decreased between 1991 and 2001, due in part to low birth rates, emigration and introduction of new ethnic categories, such as the Roma. Also, between 1961 and 1991 Hungarians had a significantly lower birth rate than the Slovak majority (which in the meantime had increased from about 3.5 million to 4.5 million), contributing to the drop in the Hungarian percentage of the population.
The Velvet Revolution and the independence of Slovakia
After the Velvet RevolutionVelvet Revolution
The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that took place from November 17 – December 29, 1989...
of 1989, Czechia and Slovakia separated peacefully in the Velvet Divorce of 1993. Following the independence of Slovakia, the situation of the Hungarian minority worsened, especially under the reign of Slovak Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar
Vladimír Meciar
Vladimír Mečiar is a Slovak politician who was Prime Minister of Slovakia from 1990 to 1991, from 1992 to 1994, and from 1994 to 1998. He is the leader of the People's Party - Movement for a Democratic Slovakia...
(1993-March 1994 and December 1994-1998).
An official language law required the use of the Slovak language not only in official communications but also in everyday commerce, in the administration of religious bodies, and even in the realm of what is normally considered private interaction, for example, communications between patient and physician. On January 23, 2007, the local broadcasting committee shut down BBC's radio broadcasting for using English, and cited the language law as the reason.
Especially in Slovakia's ethnic Hungarian areas, critics have attacked the administrative division of Slovakia as a case of gerrymandering
Gerrymandering
In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected districts...
, designed so that in all eight regions
Regions of Slovakia
Since 1949 , Slovakia has been divided into a number of kraje . Their number, borders and functions have been changed several times. There are currently eight regions of Slovakia and they correspond to the EU's NUTS 3 level of local administrative units. Each kraj consists of okresy...
, Hungarians are in the minority. Under the 1996 law of reorganization, only two districts
Districts of Slovakia
An okres is an administrative unit in Slovakia. It is inferior to a Region and superior to a municipality.-Characteristics:Several districts form a "Region"...
(Dunajská Streda
Dunajská Streda District
Dunajská Streda District is a district in the Trnava Region of western Slovakia....
and Komárno
Komárno District
Komárno District is a district inthe Nitra Region of western Slovakia.Until 1918, the district was mostly part of the Hungarian county of Komárom....
) have a Hungarian-majority population. While also done to maximize the success of the party HZDS, the gerrymandering in ethnic Hungarian areas worked to minimize the Hungarians' voting power. In all eight regions
Regions of Slovakia
Since 1949 , Slovakia has been divided into a number of kraje . Their number, borders and functions have been changed several times. There are currently eight regions of Slovakia and they correspond to the EU's NUTS 3 level of local administrative units. Each kraj consists of okresy...
, Hungarians are in the minority, though five regions have Hungarian populations within the 10 to 30 per cent range. The Slovak government established new territorial districts from north to south, dividing the Hungarian community into five administrative units, where they became a minority in each administrative unit. The Hungarian community saw a substantial loss of political influence in this gerrymandering.
On March 12, 1997, the Undersecretary of Education sent a circular to the heads of the school districts, ordering that in Hungarian-language schools, the Slovak language should be taught exclusively by native speakers. The same requirement for native Slovak-language speakers applied to teaching of geography and history in non-Slovak schools. In 1998 this measure was repealed by the Mikuláš Dzurinda
Mikuláš Dzurinda
Mikuláš Dzurinda is a Slovak politician who was Prime Minister of Slovakia from 30 October 1998 to 4 July 2006. He was a founder and leader of the Slovak Democratic Coalition and the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union...
government.
On April 10, 2008 the Hungarian Coalition Party (MKP) voted with the governing Smer and SNS
SNS
-Commerce:* SNS Bank, a Dutch bank.* Steak n Shake, a U.S. restaurant chain* Street News Service, a news agency for street newspapers-Computing:* Amazon Simple Notification Service , a multiprotocol "push" messaging web service...
supporting the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon
Treaty of Lisbon
The Treaty of Lisbon of 1668 was a peace treaty between Portugal and Spain, concluded at Lisbon on 13 February 1668, through the mediation of England, in which Spain recognized the sovereignty of Portugal's new ruling dynasty, the House of Braganza....
. This is the result of an alleged political bargain: Robert Fico
Robert Fico
Robert Fico served as the Prime Minister of Slovakia from July 4, 2006 to July 8, 2010.He is the leader of the left-wing party Direction – Social Democracy . The party won the parliamentary elections in 2006, receiving approximately 30 percent of the cast votes...
promised to change the Slovak education law that would have drastically limited the Hungarian minority's usage of their native language in education facilities. The two Slovak opposition parties saw this as a betrayal, because originally the whole Slovak opposition had planned to boycott the vote to protest a new press code that limited the freedom of the press
Freedom of the press
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials...
in Slovakia.
The situation of the Hungarian minority today
European Convention on Human Rights
The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is an international treaty to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the then newly formed Council of Europe, the convention entered into force on 3 September 1953...
, and various other legally binding documents. The Party of the Hungarian Coalition
Party of the Hungarian Coalition
The Party of the Hungarian Coalition, officially registered under the compound name Strana maďarskej koalície – Magyar Koalíció Pártja, is a political party in Slovakia, for the ethnic Hungarian minority...
is represented in Parliament and was part of the government coalition from 1998 to 2006.
The Constitution also declares that Slovak is the state language on the territory of the Slovak Republic. Make this rules concrete, the 1995 Language Law declares that the State language has a priority over other languages applied on the whole territory of the Slovak Republic. The 2009 amendment of the language law retricts the use of minority languages, and extend the obligatory use of the state language, e.g. in communities where the number of minority speaker is less than 20% of the population. Under the 2009 amendment a fine up to 5000 euros may be imposed on those committing a misdemeanour in relation to the use of the state language.
In 1995, a so-called Basic Treaty was signed between Hungary and Slovakia, regarded by the US and leading European powers as a pre-condition for these countries to join NATO and the EU. In the basic treaty the Hungary and Slovakia undertook a wide range of legal obligations among others the acceptance of recommendation 1201 of the European Council which in its article 11 states that 'in the regions where they are in a majority the persons belonging to a national minority shall have the right to have at their disposal appropriate local or autonomous authorities or to have a special status, matching the specific historical and territorial situation and in accordance with the domestic legislation of the state.'
After the regions of Slovakia
Regions of Slovakia
Since 1949 , Slovakia has been divided into a number of kraje . Their number, borders and functions have been changed several times. There are currently eight regions of Slovakia and they correspond to the EU's NUTS 3 level of local administrative units. Each kraj consists of okresy...
became autonomous in 2002(?), the SMK was able to take power in the Nitra Region
Nitra Region
The Nitra Region is one of the administrative regions of Slovakia.-Geography:This region with a long history is situated in the southwest of Slovakia, mostly in the eastern part of the Danubian Lowland. It is divided into two sub-units: the Danubian Flat in the south-west, with eastern part of the...
. It became part of the ruling coalition in several other regions. Since the new administrative system was put in place in 1996, the SMK has asked for the creation of a Hungarian-majority Komárno
Komárno
Komárno is a town in Slovakia at the confluence of the Danube and the Váh rivers. Komárno was formed from part of a historical town in Hungary situated on both banks of the Danube. Following World War I, the border of the newly created Czechoslovakia cut the historical, unified town in half,...
county. Although a territorial unit of the same name existed
Komárom county
Komárom county was a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary in present-day southern Slovakia and north-western Hungary on both sides of the...
before 1918, the borders proposed by the SMK are significantly different. The proposed region would encompass a long slice of southern Slovakia, with the explicit aim to create an administrative unit with an ethnic Hungarian majority. Hungarian minority politicians and intellectuals are convinced that such an administrative unit is essential for the long-term survival of the Hungarian minority. The Slovak government has so far refused to change the boundaries of the administrative units, and ethnic Hungarians continue as minorities in each.
According to Sabrina P. Ramet, professor of international studies at the University of Washington, who refers to situation under Vladimír Mečiar's administration between 1994 and 1998:
The coalition formed after the parliamentary elections in 2006 saw the Slovak National Party headed by Ján Slota
Ján Slota
Ján Slota is the co-founder and President of the Slovak National Party, an extremist nationalist party. Slota as the leader of SNS entered into a coalition with Robert Fico's Smer in 2006...
(frequently described as ultra-nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
, right-wing
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
extremist
Extremism
Extremism is any ideology or political act far outside the perceived political center of a society; or otherwise claimed to violate common moral standards...
) become a member of the ruling coalition, led by the allegedly social-democratic Smer party. After its signing of a coalition treaty with far-right extremist party SNS
SNS
-Commerce:* SNS Bank, a Dutch bank.* Steak n Shake, a U.S. restaurant chain* Street News Service, a news agency for street newspapers-Computing:* Amazon Simple Notification Service , a multiprotocol "push" messaging web service...
, the Smer's Social-Democratic self-identification was questioned.
In August 2006, a few incidents motivated by ethnic hatred
Ethnic hatred
Ethnic hatred, inter-ethnic hatred, racial hatred, or ethnic tension refers to feelings and acts of prejudice and hostility towards an ethnic group in various degrees. See list of anti-ethnic and anti-national terms for specific cases....
caused diplomatic tensions between Slovakia and Hungary. Mainstream Hungarian and Slovak media blamed Slota's anti-Hungarian statements from the early summer for the worsening ethnic relations. The Party of European Socialists
Party of European Socialists
The Party of European Socialists is a European political party led by Sergei Stanishev, former Prime Minister of Bulgaria. The PES comprises social-democratic national-level political parties primarily from Member state of the European Union, as well as other nations of the European continent. The...
, with which the Smer is affiliated, regards SNS as a party of the racist far-right. It reacted to news of the coalition by expressing grave concern. The PES suspended Smer's membership on 12 October 2006 and decided to review the situation in June 2007. The decision was then extended until February 2008, when Smer's candidacy was readmitted by PES. On 27 September 2007, the Slovak parliament reconfirmed the Beneš decrees, appearing to legitimize the historic accusation of collective guilt and deportation of Hungarians and Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
from Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
In May 2010, the newly-appointed second Viktor Orbán
Viktor Orbán
Viktor Orbán is a Hungarian populist and conservative politician and current Prime Minister of Hungary...
's cabinet in Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
initiated a bill on dual citizenship, granting Hungarian passports to members of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia, purportedly aimed at offsetting the harmful effects of the Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...
, and raising a huge controversy between Hungary and Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
. Though János Martonyi
János Martonyi
János Martonyi is a Hungarian politician and Foreign Minister of Hungary. He is a member of the Fidesz party, and was also Foreign Minister between 1998 and 2002...
, the new foreign minister, visited his Slovak colleague to discuss the dual citizenship, Robert Fico however stated that since Fidesz
Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union
The Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union is a major conservative party in Hungary. At the 2010 election in Hungary, Fidesz-KDNP won a two-thirds majority of seats by gaining 52% of the votes, with Fidesz winning 227 seats and KDNP winning 36...
and the new government did not want to negotiate on the issue, this would be a question of national security. Ján Slota Slovak government member for the Slovak National Party, fears that Hungary wants to attack Slovakia and considered the situation as a "beginning of a war conflict". The designate Prime Minister Viktor Orbán
Viktor Orbán
Viktor Orbán is a Hungarian populist and conservative politician and current Prime Minister of Hungary...
laid down firmly that he considers Slovak hysteria as part of the campaign. As a response to change in Hungarian citizenship law, the National Council of the Slovak Republic
National Council of the Slovak Republic
The National Council of the Slovak Republic , abbreviated to NR SR, is the national parliament of Slovakia. It is unicameral, and consists of 150 MPs, who are elected by universal suffrage under proportional representation every four years....
approved on May 26, 2010 a law stating that if a Slovak citizen applies for citizenship of another country then he/she will lose his/her Slovak one.
Language law
On September 1, 2009 more than ten thousand Hungarians held demonstrations to protest against the so-called language law that limits the use of minority languages in Slovakia. The law calls for fines of up to £4,380 for institution "misusing the Slovak language There were demonstrations in Dunajská StredaDunajská Streda
Dunajská Streda is a town in southern Slovakia . Dunajská Streda is the most important town of the Žitný ostrov region. It has a Hungarian ethnic majority and its population is 23,562 -Name:...
, Slovakia , in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary and in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
.
Culture
- Új SzóÚj SzóÚj Szó is a Hungarian language only daily newspaper published in Bratislava, Slovakia. It also publishes a weekly Sunday supplement titled Vasárnap .-History:The Új Szó was established by a party order on December 1, 1948...
, a Hungarian-language daily newspaper published in BratislavaBratislavaBratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
http://www.ujszo.sk - Madách - former Hungarian publishing house in Bratislava
- Kalligram - Hungarian publishing house in Bratislava http://kalligram.sk/
Education
Some 585 schools in Slovakia, kindergartenKindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
s inclusive, use the Hungarian language as the main language of education. Nearly 200 schools use both Slovak and Hungarian. In 2004, the J. Selye University
J. Selye University
The J. Selye University is the only Hungarian-language university in Slovakia. It was established in 2004 in Komárno and it has three faculties. It is named after Selye János, a 20th century Hungarian endocrinologist .-External links:*...
of Komárno was the first state-financed Hungarian-language
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
university to be opened outside Hungary.
Hungarian political parties
- under the First Republic of CzechoslovakiaFirst Republic of Czechoslovakia-Independence:The Czechoslovak declaration of independence was published by the Czechoslovak National Council, signed by Masaryk, Štefánik and Beneš on October 18, 1918 in Paris, and proclaimed on October 28 in Prague...
: Provincial Christian-Socialist PartyProvincial Christian-Socialist PartyThe Provincial Christian-Socialist Party was the main political party of ethnic Hungarians in the First Republic of Czechoslovakia.It was founded on 23 November 1919 in Košice, by the merger of Catholic associations from Bratislava and Košice, but the first party convention took place in...
, Hungarian-German Social Democratic PartyHungarian-German Social Democratic PartyThe Hungarian-German Social Democratic Party was a social democratic political party in Slovakia . It was founded in 1919 by social democrats from ethnic minority communities. The party had a German and a Hungarian section...
, Hungarian National PartyHungarian National Party (Czechoslovakia)Hungarian National Party was one of political parties of ethnic Hungarians in the First Republic of Czechoslovakia.The party was founded in February 1920 in Komárno as party of smallholders, under name Országos Magyar Kisgazda és Földműves Párt... - Party of the Hungarian CoalitionParty of the Hungarian CoalitionThe Party of the Hungarian Coalition, officially registered under the compound name Strana maďarskej koalície – Magyar Koalíció Pártja, is a political party in Slovakia, for the ethnic Hungarian minority...
(Strana maďarskej koalície - Magyar Koalíció Pártja) (MKP), in the government between 1998-2006. - Most–HídMost–HídMost–Híd is a centre-right political party in Slovakia. Its programme calls for greater cooperation between the country's Hungarian minority and ethnic Slovaks...
Towns with large Hungarian populations
Note: only towns are listed here, villages and rural municipalities are not.Towns with a Hungarian majority
- Veľký MederVelký MederVeľký Meder is a town in the Dunajská Streda District, Trnava Region in southwestern Slovakia.-Geography:Veľký Meder lies in the eastern part of Great Rye Island, on the western border of historical Komárom County,...
(Nagymegyer) - 9,113 inhabitants, of whom 84.6% are Hungarian - KolárovoKolárovoKolárovo is a town in the south of Slovakia near the town of Komárno. It is an agricultural center with 11,000 inhabitants.- Basic information :...
(Gúta) - 10,756 inhabitants, of whom 82.6% are Hungarian - Dunajská StredaDunajská StredaDunajská Streda is a town in southern Slovakia . Dunajská Streda is the most important town of the Žitný ostrov region. It has a Hungarian ethnic majority and its population is 23,562 -Name:...
(Dunaszerdahely) - 23,562 inhabitants, of whom 79.75% are Hungarian - Kráľovský ChlmecKrálovský ChlmecKráľovský Chlmec is a town in the Trebišov District in the Košice Region of south-eastern Slovakia. As of 2005, it had a population of 7,938.-History:...
(Királyhelmec) - 7,966 inhabitants, of whom 76.94% are Hungarian - ŠtúrovoŠtúrovoŠtúrovo is a town in Slovakia, situated on the River Danube. Its population in 2005 was 11,172.The town is situated opposite the Hungarian city of Esztergom. The Mária Valéria bridge connects the settlements. The bridge was destroyed in 1944 during World War II, but reconstructed in...
(Párkány) - 11,708 inhabitants, of whom 68.7% are Hungarian - ŠamorínŠamorínŠamorín or Somorja is a small town in western Slovakia, southeast of Bratislava.-Geography:The town is located on the Danubian Flat at the Žitný ostrov island, near the Gabčíkovo dam on the Danube. It is located around 17 km south-east of Bratislava and 25 km west of Dunajská Streda...
(Somorja) - 12,339 inhabitants, of whom 66.63% are Hungarian - FiľakovoFilakovoFiľakovo is a town in the Banská Bystrica Region of south-central Slovakia. Historically it was part of the Nógrád region.-Geography:...
(Fülek) - 10,198 inhabitants, of whom 64.40% are Hungarian - ŠahyŠahyŠahy is a town in southern Slovakia, The town has an ethnic Hungarian majority and its population is 7,971 people , with an average age of 42.5.-Geography:...
(Ipolyság) - 7,971 inhabitants, of whom 62.21% are Hungarian - TornaľaTornalaTornaľa is a town and municipality in Revúca District in the Banská Bystrica Region of Slovakia, with a population of almost 8,000.-Geography:...
(Tornalja) - 8,016 inhabitants, of whom 62.14% are Hungarian - KomárnoKomárnoKomárno is a town in Slovakia at the confluence of the Danube and the Váh rivers. Komárno was formed from part of a historical town in Hungary situated on both banks of the Danube. Following World War I, the border of the newly created Czechoslovakia cut the historical, unified town in half,...
(Komárom) - 37,366 inhabitants, of whom 60.09% are Hungarian - Čierna nad TisouCierna nad TisouČierna nad Tisou is a town and municipality in the Trebišov District in the Košice Region of extreme south-eastern Slovakia, near the Tisa river.-History:The town and municipality is one of the newest in the Košice Region established in 1828....
(Tiszacsernyő) - 4,390 inhabitants, of whom 60% are Hungarian - Veľké KapušanyVelké KapušanyVeľké Kapušany is a small town on the eastern plains of Slovakia, not far from the Ukrainian border.-History :The territory of the town has been settled since time immemorial . From the second half of the 10th century until 1918, it was part of the Kingdom of Hungary...
(Nagykapos) - 9,536 inhabitants of whom 56.98% are Hungarian - Želiezovce (Zselíz) - 7,522 inhabitants, of whom 51.24% are Hungarian
- HurbanovoHurbanovoHurbanovo is a town and large municipality in the Komárno District in the Nitra Region of south-west Slovakia. In 1948, its Slovak name was changed to Hurbanovo, named after Slovak writer Jozef Miloslav Hurban.- Geography :...
(Ógyalla) - 8,041 inhabitants, of whom 50.19% are Hungarian
Towns with a Hungarian population of between 25% and 50%
- Moldava nad Bodvou (Szepsi) - 9,525 inhabitants of whom 43.6% are Hungarian
- SládkovičovoSládkovicovoSládkovičovo is a town in the Galanta District, Trnava Region in southwestern Slovakia.-Geography:It is located on the Danubian Lowland, in the region known as Dolné Považie on the Dudváh river, around 45 km east of Slovak capital Bratislava and 8 km from district seat...
(Diószeg) - 6,078 inhabitants of whom 38.5% are Hungarian - GalantaGalantaGalanta is a small town in Slovakia. It is situated 50 km due east from the Slovak capital Bratislava.-Geography:Galanta lies in the Danubian Lowland , the warm southern part of Slovakia...
(Galánta) - 16,000 inhabitants of whom 36.80% are Hungarian - Rimavská SobotaRimavská SobotaRimavská Sobota is a town in southern Slovakia, in the Banská Bystrica Region, on the Rimava river. It has 24,374 inhabitants . The town is a historical capital of the Gömör-Kishont county .-Geography:...
(Rimaszombat) - 24,520 inhabitants of whom 35.26% are Hungarian - Nové ZámkyNové ZámkyNové Zámky is a town in southwestern Slovakia.-Geography:The town is located on the Danubian Lowland, on the Nitra River, at an altitude of 119 metres. It is located around 100 km from Bratislava and around 25 km from the Hungarian border. It is a road and railway hub of southern...
(Érsekújvár) - 42,300 inhabitants of whom 27.52% are Hungarian
Towns with a Hungarian population of between 10% and 25%
- RožňavaRožnavaRožňava is a town in Slovakia, approximately 71 km by road from Košice in the Košice Region, and has a population of 19,120.The town is an economic and tourist center of the Gemer. Rožňava is now a popular tourist attraction with a beautiful historic town centre. The town is an episcopal seat...
(Rozsnyó) - 19,120 inhabitants of whom 22% are Hungarian (2008 census) - SenecSenec, SlovakiaSenec is a town in the Bratislava Region of south-western Slovakia. It is a well known summer tourism and recreation center. The town is attractive not only because of the proximity of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, but also because of the healthy environment and summer resort "Slnečné...
(Szenc) - 15,193 inhabitants of whom 22% are Hungarian - ŠaľaSala- Geography :* Sala Municipality, Sweden - a municipality in Sweden* Sala, Sweden - a city in Sweden, seat of Sala Municipality* Sala municipality, Latvia - a municipality in Latvia* Sala, Latvia - a village in Latvia, an administrative centre of Sala municipality...
(Vágsellye) - 24,506 inhabitants of whom 17.9% are Hungarian - LučenecLucenecLučenec is a town in the Banská Bystrica Region of south-central Slovakia. Historically, it was part, and in the 18th century the capital, of the Nógrád county of the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1918, as a result of the Treaty of Trianon, it became a part of Czechoslovakia...
(Losonc) - 28,221 inhabitants of whom 13.11% are Hungarian - LeviceLeviceLevice is a town in western Slovakia. The town lies on the left bank of the lower Hron river. The Old Slavic name of the town was Leva, which means "the Left One"....
(Léva) - 35,980 inhabitants of whom 12.23% are Hungarian
Born before 1918 in the Kingdom of Hungary
- Gyula AndrássyGyula AndrássyGyula Count Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka was a Hungarian statesman, who served as Prime Minister of Hungary and subsequently as Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary...
(politician) - Gyula Andrássy the YoungerGyula Andrássy the YoungerCount Gyula Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka the Younger was a Hungarian politician.The second son of Count Gyula Andrássy, the younger Andrássy became under-secretary in the Sándor Wekerle ministry in 1892; in 1893, he became Minister of Education, and, in June 1894, he was appointed...
(politician) - Bálint BalassiBálint BalassiBálint Balassi baron of Kékkő and Gyarmat, , was a multilingual Hungarian Renaissance lyric poet, who wrote mostly in Hungarian...
(poet) - Miklós Bercsényi (politician, military leader)
- Lujza Blaha (actress, "the nightingale of the nation")
- Béla GersterBéla GersterBéla Gerster was a Hungarian engineer and canal architect. He took part in an early expedition to determine the route of the Panama Canal, and was the chief engineer of the Corinth Canal....
(engineer, canal architect) - Mór JókaiMór JókaiMór Jókai , born Móric Jókay de Ásva , outside Hungary also known as Maurus Jokai, was a Hungarian dramatist and novelist.-Early life:...
(writer) - Imre MadáchImre MadáchImre Madách de Sztregova et de Kelecsény was a Hungarian writer, poet, lawyer and politician. His major work is The Tragedy of Man . It is a dramatic poem approximately 4000 lines long, which elaborates on ideas comparable to Goethe's Faust...
(poet) - Pál MaléterPál MaléterPál Maléter was born to Hungarian parents in Eperjes, a city in the northern part of Historical Hungary, today part of Slovakia. He was the military leader of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution....
(military leader of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution) - Sándor MáraiSándor MáraiSándor Márai was a Hungarian writer and journalist.-Biography:...
(world-famous writer) - Kálmán MikszáthKálmán MikszáthKálmán Mikszáth de Kiscsoltó was a major Hungarian novelist, journalist, and politician.-Biography:Mikszáth was born in Szklabonya, Upper Hungary into a family of the lesser nobility...
(writer) - Francis II RákócziFrancis II RákócziFrancis II Rákóczi Hungarian aristocrat, he was the leader of the Hungarian uprising against the Habsburgs in 1703-11 as the prince of the Estates Confederated for Liberty of the Kingdom of Hungary. He was also Prince of Transylvania, an Imperial Prince, and a member of the Order of the Golden...
(prince, military leader, freedom fighter) - Gyula Reviczky (poet)
- Mihály TompaMihály TompaMihály Tompa , Hungarian lyric poet, was born in Rimaszombat, in the county of Gömör, his father being village bootmaker....
(poet) - Lajos KassákLajos KassákLajos Kassák was a Hungarian poet, novelist, painter, essayist, editor, theoretician of the avant-garde and occasional translator, was the father of many modernisms....
(poet, painter, typographer, graphic artist) - Ernő DohnányiErno DohnányiErnő Dohnányi was a Hungarian conductor, composer, and pianist. He used the German form of his name Ernst von Dohnányi for most of his published compositions....
(conductor, composer, pianist) - Lajos BatthyányLajos BatthyányCount Lajos Batthyány de Németújvár was the first Prime Minister of Hungary. He was born in Pressburg on 10 February 1807, and was executed by firing squad in Pest on 6 October 1849, the same day as the 13 Martyrs of Arad.-Career:His father was Count József Sándor Batthyány , his mother Borbála...
(politician, martyr) - József Révay (philosopher, Olympic champion)
- Peter LorrePeter LorrePeter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
(Hollywood actor) - Franz SchmidtFranz SchmidtFranz Schmidt was an Austrian composer, cellist and pianist of Hungarian descent and origin.- Life :Schmidt was born in Pozsony , in the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire . His father was half Hungarian and his mother entirely Hungarian...
(composer) - János Zsámboky (Humanist)
Born after 1918 in Czechoslovakia
- Balázs BorbélyBalázs BorbélyBalázs Borbély is a Slovakia international football midfielder who last played for Cyprus club AEL Limassol.-Club career:...
(sportsman) - Imrich BugárImrich BugárImrich Bugár born 14 April 1955) is a champion discus thrower. An ethnic Hungarian who represented Czechoslovakia and then the Czech Republic, his career highlights include an Olympic silver medal from 1980, a European Championship title from 1982 and a gold medal in the inaugural World...
Imre Bugár (sportsman) - George FeherGeorge FeherGeorge Feher is an American biophysicist working at the University of California, San Diego.- Birth and education :George Feher was born in Czechoslovakia in 1924. When the Nazis came in, he made his way overland to Israel He worked for the Jewish underground for Israel Independence...
György Fehér (biophysicist) - Koloman GöghKoloman GöghKoloman Gögh was a professional Czechoslovak footballer.Gögh was born in what is today the Czech Republic, played in teams that are currently Slovakian and had ties with the Hungarian minority in Slovakia, there are partially contradicting claims as to whether he was a Slovak or Hungarian player...
Kálmán Gögh (sportsman) - László Mécs (Družstevná pri HornádeDružstevná pri HornádeDružstevná pri Hornáde is a relatively new village and municipality in Košice-okolie District in the Kosice Region of eastern Slovakia.-History:...
, Slovakia; poet) - Szilárd NémethSzilárd NémethSzilárd Németh is a former Slovakian footballer who was last playing for German club Alemannia Aachen. He usually plays as a striker or right midfielder.-Club career:...
(sportsman) - Alexander PitukAlexander PitukAlexander Pituk was a Slovak and Hungarian chess problem composer and judge.He resided all his life in Banská Štiavnica and worked as a carpenter...
Sándor Pituk (sportsman) - Tamás PriskinTamás PriskinTamás Priskin is a Hungarian professional footballer, who plays as a striker for Derby County, on loan from Ipswich Town. Born in Czechoslovakia, Priskin joined Hungarian side Győri ETO FC at the age of 15, making his debut at 16 and obtaining Hungarian citizenship in 2005. He moved to English...
(sportsman) - Richard RétiRichard RétiRéti composed one of the most famous chess studies, shown in this diagram. It was published in Ostrauer Morgenzeitung 4 December 1921. It seems impossible for the white king to catch the advanced black pawn, while the white pawn can be easily stopped by the black king...
(sportsman)
Born in Czechoslovakia, career in Hungary
- Katalin Szvorák
- János Manga
- Attila KaszásAttila KaszásAttila Kaszás was a Slovakian-born Hungarian actor, singer.-Early life:Attila Kaszás born in Šaľa, Czechoslovakia, but he spent his childhood in Vlčany, where his parents taught in the local school. He went then to the in János Selye High School in Komárno. From 1979 he studied at the Academy of...
Hungarian politicians in Slovakia
- Béla BugárBéla Bugáris a Slovak politician of Hungarian ethnicity. He is a member of the Slovak parliament since 1992, briefly serving as its acting Speaker in 2006. He is the leader of the political party Most-Híd....
- former chairman of Party of the Hungarian Coalition - Edit BauerEdit BauerEdit Bauer Edit Bauer Edit Bauer (born on 30 August 1946 in (Somorja Šamorín)is a Slovak politician of Hungarian ethnicity andMember of the European Parliament with the Magyar Koalíció Pártja,part of the European People's Party and sits on...
- member of Member of the European ParliamentMember of the European ParliamentA Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,... - László Nagy
- Pál CsákyPál CsákyPál Csáky is a Slovak politician, member of Hungarian minority in Slovakia and the country's former Deputy Prime Minister for European affairs, human rights and minorities. Csáky has been an activist for the Hungarian minority in Slovakia since 1977 . His political activity started in 1989, and he...
- chairman of Party of the Hungarian CoalitionParty of the Hungarian CoalitionThe Party of the Hungarian Coalition, officially registered under the compound name Strana maďarskej koalície – Magyar Koalíció Pártja, is a political party in Slovakia, for the ethnic Hungarian minority... - László GyurovszkyLászló GyurovszkyLászló Gyurovszky is former Minister of Construction and Regional Development of Slovakia. He graduated at Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Slovak Technical College . After studies, he worked in chemical industry, in Duslo Šaľa...
- Miklós Duray
- Count János EsterházyJános EsterházyCount János Esterházy a member of the House of Esterházy was the most prominent ethnic Hungarian politician in former Czechoslovakia...
- World War II politician - Károly Tóth - Leader of the Forum institute, which compiles statistics on minorities in Slovakia.
See also
- 2006 Slovak-Hungarian diplomatic affairs2006 Slovak-Hungarian diplomatic affairsThe Slovak-Hungarian diplomatic affairs of 2006 were a series of ethnic and diplomatic affairs between Slovakia and Hungary. Although the rights of the Hungarians living in Slovakia are protected by international law, a chain of incidents happened in the summer of 2006...
- CsángóCsángóThe Csango people are a Hungarian ethnographic group of Roman Catholic faith living mostly in the Romanian region of Moldavia, especially in the Bacău County...
- Demographics of SlovakiaDemographics of SlovakiaThis article is about the demographic features of the population of Slovakia, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population...
- Hungarian minority in Romania
- Hungarians in VojvodinaHungarians in VojvodinaHungarians are the second largest ethnic group in the Vojvodina province in northern Serbia. According to the 2002 census, there are 290,207 ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina who compose 14.28% of the provincial population. The number of ethnic Hungarians in the whole of Serbia is 293,299, and their...
- Hungarian-Slovak relations
- MagyarizationMagyarizationMagyarization is a kind of assimilation or acculturation, a process by which non-Magyar elements came to adopt Magyar culture and language due to social pressure .Defiance or appeals to the Nationalities Law, met...
- SlovakizationSlovakizationSlovakization or Slovakisation is a term used to describe a cultural change in which ethnically non-Slovak people are made to become Slovak. The process can be named as 'accelerated assimilation'....
- SzékelySzékelyThe Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...
- Székelys of BukovinaSzékelys of BukovinaThe Székelys of Bukovina are a small Hungarian ethnic community with a complex history. They live today in the Tolna and Baranya counties of Hungary, in Hunedoara County in Romania and in the Serbian province of Vojvodina.-Origins:...
- Ethnic tensions in CzechoslovakiaEthnic tensions in CzechoslovakiaThis article describes ethnic tensions in Czechoslovakia from 1918 until 1992.- Background :Czechoslovakia was founded as a country in the aftermath of World War I with its borders set out in the Treaty of Trianon and Treaty of Versailles, though the new borders were de facto established about a...