SLOVAK POLITICIANS have lambasted neighbouring Hungary for making it easier for ethnic Hungarians living abroad to obtain citizenship, after Slovakia’s prime minister claimed the move would represent a “security threat” to his country.
The citizenship law was a priority for Hungary’s new centre-right government, and has become a key issue in campaigning for Slovakia’s general election next month, when populist premier Robert Fico could be ousted along with a government that includes far-right nationalists.
Applause rippled around Budapest’s parliament after the law was approved by an overwhelming majority. It will simplify the process by which more than three million ethnic Hungarians living in neighbouring countries in central Europe can obtain citizenship.
Members of Slovakia’s ruling coalition said their parliament would consider retaliatory measures as soon as possible. Mr Fico has threatened to propose a law to strip Slovak citizenship from anyone living in the country who applies for Hungarian citizenship.
The status of ethnic Hungarians living outside the country’s borders is a major issue in Hungary, which lost two-thirds of its territory in the Treaty of Trianon, which was signed after the first World War.
The Slovak parliament passed a resolution yesterday calling it “unacceptable that the Hungarian parliament adopts an extraterritorial legal norm concerning citizens of the Slovak Republic without first consulting with top political representatives of Slovakia”, and warned against “the continual questioning of the Trianon Peace Treaty of 1920 and the postwar territorial arrangement of Europe”. Members of the Hungarian party in the Slovak parliament left rather than listen to fiery speeches from the far-right Slovak National Party (SNS), which is part of Mr Fico’s coalition.
Julius Brocka of the main centre-right opposition party said new Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban was deliberately stirring up nationalist sentiment in Slovakia ahead of its June 12th election, and ridiculed the SNS.
“The more stupid the Slovak government, the better it is for Orban – that’s why he wants your government to continue,” he said.