Interstate and political relations between Slovakia and Hungary could be better, but they are not as bad as the media claims, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico told the Hungarian nationwide daily Nepszabadsag in an interview published on Wednesday.
“If they were as bad as they say, we wouldn’t be on speaking terms,” he said adding that most recent informal talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany in Brussels a week ago focused on current issues. Fico reiterated his open invitation to Gyurcsany to visit Slovakia.
Queried about his reluctance to distance himself from coalition partner Jan Slota of the Slovak National Party’s anti-Hungarian position, Fico said he was not the National Party’s spokesman but the prime minister. He charged the media with mixing statements from political parties with the government platform, arguing that the latter contained no insults or attacks on Hungarians. Fico vehemently objected to what he called the Hungarian media’s inability to distinguish between the statements of individual politicians and official government positions. It is a narrow-minded outlook, he said, that see anti-Hungarian or even anti-Slovak manifestations in “almost everything.”
At the same time, he sharply criticized political forces in Hungary.
“If there were a political force in Slovakia speaking of uniting all Slovaks living beyond our borders, I might call it opposition rhetoric to be ignored,” said Fico, offering an analogy to statements about Hungarians in neighbouring countries made by the Hungarian opposition.
“If (opposition Fidesz leader) Viktor Orban becomes prime minister … I hope he’ll alter his political vocabulary and conduct,” Fico said.
