Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico yesterday convened a special meeting of the country’s domestic security services to express his concern over secret service reports that the Hungarian far-right group the 64 Youths Movement is recruiting members in Slovakia.
He said the group has visited Dunajska Streda and Somorja and is now planning to visit Fülek, Losonc and Kosice.
“We must not allow ourselves to see half insane people roam our country and spread radical views. If necessary, police will intervene because no half crazy Hungarian people will march in our country,” he said.
Fico remarked that “countries afflicted by social and economic woes are inclined to turn radical but it would not be good if Hungary exported its extremists to Slovakia.”
Political analysts said his remark serves the Slovak presidential campaign and aims to cast seeds of doubt in the minds of the followers of opposition candidate Iveta Radicova, who is supported by the Hungarian Coalition Party.
F$%^ you Fico, give southern Slovakia back to Hungary and we can all be on our merry ways…..
Hello Gandi,
Regarding your point, I’ve made my views on this subject quite well known on this website on thread http://www.politics.hu/20081212/slovak-fm-says-bratislava-was-surprised-by-gyurcsanys-proposals In fact, I believe you were a participant on that thread.
Merely demanding the return of that territory will of course not work. The issue of a plebescite would have to be forced and supported by the EU and possibly the UN. It would take clever diplomatic gamesmanship and influence on our part to make it happen. I would rate the possibility of this being effected by us at the present time not at zero, but close to it. We simply lack the werewithal and the talent for influence peddling. For now, our Slovak friends can rest assured that their little nation will shrink no further.
A financially cash strapped people with a victim mentality will not have the “savoir faire” that it would take to carry out my proposal. This will be a project worthy of our children or grandchildren, provided they will have gotten richer and more self-confident in the face of international institutions and diplomacy. Today’s Hungarians are a mess and can hardly manage the size of Hungary that is left to them by the Trianon treaty. As it stands, these “across the border” Hungarians may not want to join us if given a choice, and that IS a depressing thought to me! Better we work on becoming an economic powerhouse first, before we entertain such ambitions.
Here we go again, “beam me up Scotty”, the reason the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell apart in the first place was forcing Magyarization down the throats of non Hungarians in the kingdom between 1850 and 1910. The thinking was really Orwellian with thoughts like (in 1868) every citizen of the country, whatever his personal nationality (nemzetiség), is a member equal in rights.” The Education Act, passed the same year, shared this view as the Magyars simply being primus inter pares (“first among equals”).
Wake up people, the Soviet Union has gone, so has the days of a Hungarian empire, they lost their chance and supporting Hitler so he could reoccupy some territory was the nail in the coffin.
I used to think Russians were sore losers being nostalgic about 30 years back, but some Hungarians think of 150 years ago. Slovakia is a fact and doing very well, so Hungary should control their nut jobs on the right and accept the Slovaks as neighbors.
Dear Bernie,
I do favor territorial revision for Hungary, simply because the Trianon boundaries left a number of Hungarians outside the current frontiers. I think it fair to suggest that Hungarian majority areas be eventually allowed to decide the sovereignty issue. I don’t favor boundary revisions by force; instead I advocate change within means that are acceptable to the international community. I am not in favor of “empire”.
Whatever happened in the 19th century, I am also not in favor of “forced Magyarization” of any minority; I would propose that there be equalty of people and rights and that we continue to be compliant with current EU laws on this. I at all times wish to remain within the trends and realities of modern Europe.
I do admit that there are some romantics among us who have unrealizable territorial aspirations, but I wouldn’t count myself among them. Slovakia “in toto” can’t and should not be reabsorbed, as the sovereignty of the Slovak people needs to be respected. I do think that there needs to be a fairer line of division between our two peoples. I would like Hungarian majority areas outside our borders to have a chance to someday decide their fate either way, a consideration they didn’t get in 1919.
I wouldn’t get too riled up over this, as there is no Hungarian politician in sight who I think can make this kind of change happen. On the other hand, this issue will never die and completely go away. Now beam me up!
Why on earth would ethnic Hungarians want to leave more prosperous Slovakia to be a part of Hungary once again? Who in their right mind would make this choice aside for Hungo-Slovaks at the very bottom of that social order.
“Who in their right mind…”
You wouldn’t know, CM, you have a left (wrong) mind if any.
Hello Stan and “CM”,
I’ve expressed a similiar concern in my first post above. There was a time when I would have been affronted by such a thought, but I always believe in being a realist.
What I don’t want for any of us to do is speak for the “ex-border Hungarians” in Slovakia, Romania and Serbia. I would like to know what they think. One way would be to take a poll; if any has been done on this issue, I would like to know the results. The other way for them to speak is through the ballot box, an option that was never offered them by the Allied powers that forced the end result. Again, our neighbor states can sleep soundly on this issue, as our political class doesn’t seem to know how to manage, let alone change the status quo.
I don’t accept anything we did in the 19th century as a blueprint for the future, and that includes minority relations. Nobody has been more critical of our past on this website than I. Furthermore, brandishing maps of the old “64 county” Hungary, which included Croatia and Fiume, is an exercise in pure nostalgia and not a preparation for the future.
LF,
While I do appreciate the raising of intellectual caliber here with your insightful comments, please do not address me along with that mouth-breather with an IQ of 160, it really makes me ill.
Hello C’ est moi,
I assume you mean Stan? An IQ of a 160 is actually pretty high. Communication is important for us around here, especially as I don’t ever wish to direct my polemics in a personal way.
To get back to the territorial issue. If the Hungarians in Slovakia vote “no” to integration with Hungary in an internationally supervised plebescite, I would be the first to shake hands with the Slovaks and accept that the football match, which began in 1919, is truly lost. Such a result might help us all to move on. One’s beloved team doesn’t always win!
Peace