Slovaks tell Hungarian foreign minister to mind her own business

Slovak deputy Prime Minister Dušan Čaplovič has called on Hungarian Foreign Minister and “woman with disheveled hair” Kinga Göncz to refrain from “meddling in Slovakia’s internal affairs.” The conflict that is likely to run and run now that the Hungarian government has summoning the Slovak Ambassador in for a polite chat about the repeated verbal attacks emanating from Bratislava, directed both toward the Hungarian government and minorities in southern Slovakia.

The dispute between the two countries – and the ethnic Hungarians stuck in the middle – intensified last week when Pál Csáky, chairman of the Party of Hungarian Coalition (SMK), suggested partial Hungarian autonomy in Northern Slovakia during a meeting with influential Romanian MEP László Tőkés last week. The autonomy would help prevent the recent issue of EU funding from being withheld from Hungarian schools.

Although, according to the English-language Slovak Spectator, the proposal made by the former deputy prime minister (and therefore reasonably respected politician) is nothing new, the Slovak government is reportedly outraged. For one, Prime Minister Robert Fico believes: “There is no doubt that the biggest threat to Slovak-Hungarian relations is the SMK chairman and his extremist leadership.” Most Hungarians on both sides of the border would disagree, particularly on reading the following quote from Fico’s coalition partner and genuine right-wing nut-job Ján Slota: “I feel threatened by the political situation there. It’s very easy to imagine the bridges being crossed by troops heading from (from Hungary to Slovakia).” Slovak for “pot,” “kettle” and “black,” anyone?