An overwhelming majority of Hungarians back Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai’s decision to hold talks with his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico with the aim of resolving tensions between the two countries, and most want Slovakia to say sorry for its snub to President Laszlo Solyom, said pollster Median in Thursday’s Nepszabadsag daily.
Opinion crossed party lines, with 87 percent supporting the meeting and 83 percent hoping for a Slovakian apology.
Large majorities also saw hope in the meeting later on Thursday for an agreement paving the way for cooperation on combating radical nationalism, creating a joint cooperation council comprising distinguished personalities, holding joint cabinet sessions and publishing common history text books, as well as developing the road network between the two countries, the survey found.
Most respondents, 71 percent, agreed with the statement that Slovakia’s language law was “mainly directed against Slovak Hungarians” and most also rejected Slovakia’s explanations for their denial of entry to Solyom on August 21.
Bajnai is to meet Fico in the Hungarian town of Szecseny in Nograd County near the border later today, where he is to put forward several concrete proposals, including one to amend Slovakia’s language law so that it coincides with European Union norms and others concerning fighting both countries’ anti-Semite and anti-Roma extremists.
