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October 7th, 2008

Slovak PM denounces insults but reissues “ultimatum” charge

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico backed away on Monday from a string of insults his coalition partner Jan Slota of the Slovak National Party SNS hurled at Hungary’s foreign minister, but continued to say that she had issued an ultimatum to Slovakia.

Foreign Minister Kinga Goncz had summoned Slovak Ambassador Juraj Migas on Thursday, where she personally requested explanation for “Slovak manifestations of the past few weeks that the Hungarian side considers unacceptable and incomprehensible given that the two are neighbouring European Union and NATO members.”

Fico said on Friday that she had delivered an ultimatum, saying he interpreted Goncz’s message as: ‘If you don’t obey, you’ll see the diplomatic hell we’ll unleash on you!”

Slota issued a spate of insults against Goncz on Sunday, ranging from her hair to her appearance and size and indirectly comparing her to Hitler.

On Monday, Fico, who has until now not rejected any of Slota’s anti-Hungarian statements, finally issued a critique, saying, “I dissociate myself from any personal attacks. I don’t approve of them, but the substance of the matter is the ultimatum,” he charged Goncz with issuing.

Fico called on the media to stop paying so much attention to Slota and deal instead with “the essence of matters, the Hungarian ultimatum.”

Among the hot button issues are Slovakia’s failure to meet an earlier commitment to include the Hungarian versions of place names in Slovak textbooks used in ethnic Hungarian schools, and the fact that the Hungarian schools had hardly received any of the EU funds granted to the country for educational purposes. Hungary also objected to remarks made by SNS leaders, which, as Goncz said on Thursday, were often within the realm of hate speech.

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One Comment

  1. Robi says:

    Neoslavia LOL
    What a hell do we expect from a “Country” with
    14years of history what fits on an A4 page?