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Slovakization orSlovakisation (Slovak:Slovakizácia,Hungarian:Szlovákosítás) is a form of either forced or voluntarycultural assimilation andacculturation, during which non-Slovak nationals give up their culture and language in favor of theSlovak one. This process has relied most heavily on intimidation and harassment by state authorities.[2][3][4][5] Another method of Slovakization was artificial resettlement.[6] In the past the process has been greatly aided by deprivation ofcollective rights for minorities andethnic cleansing, but in the last decades its promotion has been limited to the adoption of anti-minority policies and anti-minorityhate speech.
The process itself is limited mostly toSlovakia, where Slovaks constitute the absolute majority by means of population and legislation power as well. Slovakization is most often used in relation toHungarians,[7] who constitute the most prominent minority of Slovakia, but it also affectsGermans,Poles,Ukrainians,Rusyns (Ruthenians),[8] and Jews, andRomani.
Robert Fico's governance often violates minority rights and is openlyhungarophobic for its disrespect of the Hungarian minority,[9][10][11][12][13] and Fico himself in 1998 lobbied for the Party ofHungarian Coalition to not be let into the Slovakian parliament,[14] and stated that the Beneš decrees (promoted theviolation of human rights andracial discrimination of Hungarian and German population) was unchangeable.[15]
The process of slovakization was present in theKingdom of Hungary presumably ever since the appearance of the Slovak nation itself, but up until the foundation of Czechoslovakia the process was entirely voluntary. This early form of slovakization can be observed in detail in noble families' personal correspondence.[18] Another example of pre-World War I Slovakization is the assimilation of the Habans, aHutterite group settled in theNagylévárd (today's Veľké Leváre) area in the 16th century, into the Slovak majority.[19]
The accelerated,[20] forced[21][22] nature of slovakization began with the defeat of the remaining Hungarian armies in 1919, which laid foundations to the creation of Czechoslovakia, a state in which the Slovaks had gained ade facto political power for the first time in the nation's history. TheParis Peace Conference concluded by theTreaty of Trianon in 1920 set the southern border of Czechoslovakia for strategic and economic reasons much further south than the Slovak-Hungarian language border.[23] Consequently, fully Hungarian-populated areas were annexed to the newly created state.[24] The ethnic border has been sliding downward since the second part of the 19th century, with the beginning of theSlovak nationalist aspirations, and many almost exclusively Hungarian settlements, such asPusztafödémes (now: Pusté Úľany) became completely Slovakised by the end of the 1910s.[25]
Czechoslovakia provided a large education network for the Hungarian minority. Hungarians, for example, had 31 kindergartens, 806 elementary schools, 46 secondary schools, 576 Hungarian libraries at schools in the 1930s and a Department ofHungarian literature was created at theCharles University of Prague.[citation needed] The number of Hungarian elementary schools increased from 720 in 1923/1924 to the above number 806.[26] The Hungarian University in Bratislava/Pozsony was immediately closed after formation of Czechoslovakia[27]
According to the 1910 census conducted by the Central Statistical Office of Hungary, there were 884,309 people with Hungarian as a mother tongue, constituting 30.2% of the population, in what is now Slovakia[verification needed] compared to the 9.7% number recorded in the 2001 census, amounting to a 3-fold decrease in the percentage of Hungarians.[28][29] The first Slovak census in 1919 in what is now Slovakia recorded 689,565 Hungarians constituting 23.59% of the population. According to the first Czechoslovak census in 1921 there were 650,597 Hungarians in Slovakia, constituting 21.68% of the population.[30] The Czechoslovak census of 1930 recorded 571,952 Hungarians. All censuses from the period are disputed, and some give conflicting data for example in Kosice according to the Czechoslovak censuses 15–20% of the population was Hungarian. However, during the parliamentary elections the Ethnic Hungarian parties got 35–45% of the total votes (excluding those Hungarians who voted for the Communists or the Social democrats).[31] The whole matter is complicated by the fact that there was a high percentage of bilingual and similarly "Slovak-Hungarian" persons who could claim being both Slovak and Hungarian.
Slovak sources usually do not deny that many Hungarian teachers (replaced in Slovak schools by Slovak and Czech teachers), railwaymen (on strike against new Czechoslovak republic in February 1919),[32][better source needed] postmen, policemen, soldiers and civil clerks (replaced by Czech and Slovak soldiers, policemen and clerks) were forced to leave or left for Hungary voluntarily, the numbers however are unclear but census do show a rapid decline in the number of people with Hungarian as a mother tongue. Some teachers and civil servants were expelled from Czechoslovakia while some left due to the harsh circumstances.[citation needed] There are many examples of Hungarians who were forced to leave their homes from this territory (two famous ones are the families ofBéla Hamvas,[33] and ofAlbert Szent-Györgyi). The high number of refugees (and even more fromRomania) necessitated entire new housing projects inBudapest (Mária-Valéria telep, Pongrácz-telep), which gave shelter to refugees numbering at least in the ten-thousands.[34]
Demographic change was also significant. Since the Middle Ages, Pusztaföldes, for example, had been almost exclusively Hungarian, but the Slovak expansion slowly replaced the aging population and out-numbering them.[35]
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Under theAustro-Hungarian Empire there was strong anti-Hungarian sentiment among certain sections of the Czech and Slovak population[36][37][38] and this persisted to some extent in Czechoslovakia once it was formed. It seemed to hit the city ofPressburg (soon to be renamed Bratislava) most intensely. One of the first measures brought bySamuel Zoch, the newly appointedžupan of the city was the forced disbandment of the only Hungarian university in Czechoslovakia (Elisabeth Science University), and the intimidation of its professors by the police in 1919, immediately after the formation of the new country.[39][neutrality isdisputed] Most of the professors and former students then left Pressburg forBudapest (with the university laterbeing re-established in Pécs). Zoch had previously stated "...but the question of minorities will be fully solved only after our public perception of morality will condemn ethnic oppression just as much as the oppression of religion".[40]
According to Varsik, the university was not closed by the župan because local politicians did not have such powers.[citation needed] Elisabeth University was founded in 1912 and began teaching only in 1914. The university was not the only Hungarian graduate school in the territory of contemporary Slovakia, but it had to serve to also all students fromUpper Hungary inhabited by Slovak majority. However, in compliance with the education policy of the Hungarian government, which did not allow Slovak high schools, the university did not even have a Slovak language department. In 1919, a new Czechoslovak university was founded in parallel and adopted space and limited inventory of unfinished faculty of medicine. Hungarian professors refused to promise loyalty to the new state, as was necessary for teachers and state employees, and were retired after being provided financial compensation.[41] Thereafter, the university was closed by official government decree and replaced byComenius University which remained the only university in mid-war Slovakia for the majority population.
On 3 February 1919, the day before the moving ofVavro Šrobár's government to Bratislava, a strike began which affected key infrastructure and sectors of industry. The strike had initially social character.[clarification needed] Thereafter, it was politicized and joined with national demands of Hungarian and German workers. On 12 February 1919, Hungarian nationalistic circles exploited a demonstration organized by the Council of Workers. The demonstration went out of control and after a physical attack on the Italian commanderRiccardo Barreca, a military patrol dispersed the crowd by shooting,[42] leaving 7 dead and 23 wounded.[39]
Another aspect of the anti-Hungarian sentiment was the hatred of all the statues and monuments representingAustria-Hungary or Hungarian historical people.National socialistMPs of the Czechoslovak National Assembly called for the conservation of such works of art, moving and preserving them in suitable places as early as 1920.[43] The hatred however was not limited to sculptures only: Hungarian books were burned inPoprad[44] and possibly other locations[45] as well. Concurrently some of the statues were destroyed as well: the millennium monument along with theÁrpád statue inDevín was blown up using dynamite,.[43][46] The statue ofMaria Theresa inBratislava was preserved until October 1921 when information about attempts to restore monarchy spread in successor states of Austro-Hungarian Empire.[43] In the atmosphere of partial mobilization, martial law and fresh memories to invasion byBéla Kun's army, it was brought down using ropes tied to trucks.[43][45] In Slovakia, memorials were destroyed mainly after intervention of Red Guards ofBéla Kun in spring and summer 1919, when statues ofLajos Kossuth were destroyed inRožňava,Lučenec,Dobšiná andNové Zámky,[46] as well as a statue ofFerenc Rákóczi inBrezno and numerous others.[43] In almost all of these cases the perpetrators were soldiers of the Czechoslovak legion.[43] The idleness of state authorities encouraged destroyers of statues. The government started to act only when the mob had begun to take over shops and properties of German entrepreneurs.[citation needed] Thereafter, Czechoslovak army and police intervened and destruction of symbols of monarchy stopped for nearly a year.[43]
In the revolutionary period between the creation of Czechoslovakia and the first free parliamentary elections in 1920, legislative power was held by temporary, the revolutionary (un-elected)Czechoslovak National Council (later TheCzechoslovak National Assembly). The revolutionary parliament without participation of minorities[47] also adopted a new constitution. The constitution guaranteed equal rights for all citizens regardless of gender, nationality or religion. In comparison with the previous state in theKingdom of Hungary it also extended political rights to individuals of Hungarian nationality, by introducinguniversal suffrage, removing voting criteria based on wealth and education (typical for previous Hungarian elections)[48] and granted fullwomen's suffrage (including for Hungarian women).
Later on, all minorities gained the right to use their languages in municipalities where they constituted at least 20% of the population even in communication with government offices and courts.
According toBéla Angyal, due togerrymandering and disproportionate distribution of population betweenBohemia andSlovakia the Hungarians had little representation in the National Assembly and thus their influence on the politics of Czechoslovakia remained limited. The same considerations limited the Slovakintelligentsia's political power as well.[47] On the other hand, Hungarians founded numerous parties including pro-Czechoslovak parties, founded parties with agrarian, social-democratic, Christian-socialist and other orientations, were active as sections of statewide Czechoslovak parties, had opportunities to participate in government and in the 1920s Hungarian members of parliament participated in adoption of several important laws with statewide impact.[49]
After World War II, the size of Hungarian population was decreased by Czechoslovak-Hungarian population exchange and expulsion of Hungarians who came to after theFirst Vienna Award or committed crimes according to Decree of Slovak National Council No. 33/1945 Zb. about people tribunals. Due to the proclamation of the "Košice Government Program", the German and Hungarian population living in the reborn Czechoslovakia were subjected to various forms of persecution, including: expulsions, deportations, internments, peoples court procedures, citizenship revocations, property confiscation, condemnation to forced labour camps, and forced changes of ethnicity referred to as "reslovakization."
"...in Slovakia, the party is breaking into factions. One of the factions is headed by the Representative of the Soviet of Plenipotentiaries, G. Husák. This faction includes Clementis, Novomeský and in general the Slovak intelligentsia and students. It displays a sharply nationalistic,anti-Semitic,anti-Hungarian character. ... Anti-Semitism generally is widespread in the party"
In 1946 the process of "Reslovakization" (or re-Slovakization), the forced acceptance of Slovak ethnicity,[51][52] was engaged by the Czechoslovak government with the objective of eliminating the Hungarian ethnicity.[51] The Slovak Commissioner of the Interior on June 17, 1946 (decree No.20,000/1946) initiated the "Reslovakization" program.[51] This process based upon the Czechoslovak assumption that in fact there never had been any Hungarians in South Slovakia, only "Hungarianized Slovaks" who lost their Slovak national identity through the centuries of Hungarian rule.[53][54] As Anton Granatier, officer of the Resettlement Bureau said:„We want to be the national state of Slovaks and Czechs, and we will be. This monumental programme includes re−slovakization, already under way in whole Slovakia! Within the scope of this action everyone who feels to be Slovak by origin will have the chance to declare it freely whether they want to become Slovaks with all its consequences or want to share the fate of those without citizenship.“ In the spring and summer of 1945, a series of decrees stripped Hungarians of property, from all civil rights and from their citizenship.[55] Hungary itself gave the Slovaks equal rights and demanded the same solution to the issue from Czechoslovakia.[50] Since Hungarians in Slovakia were deprived of many rights, and were the target of discrimination, they were pressured into having their ethnicity officially changed to Slovak, otherwise they dropped out of thepension,social, andhealthcare system.[56] 400,000 (sources differ) stateless[57] Hungarians applied for, and eventually 344,609[51] Hungarians received a re-Slovakization certificate by the Central Committee for Reslovakization, and thereby Czechoslovak citizenship. Therefore, the number of Hungarians in Slovakia dropped to 350,000.[57] According to Soviet archives, 20,000 Hungarians declared themselves as Slovak at the beginning of the year 1949, and eventually 360,000 Hungarians changed their ethnicity to Slovak, according to Slovak historians.[58] The fear was so big among the Hungarian population, that only 350,000–367,000[59] claimed themselves Hungarian in the 1950 census, and only after ten years -when the reslovakization program was revoked- began to rose and reached 518,000.[60]
The official results of re-slovakization action were summarized in the final report of the Re-slovakization Commission. The commission received 197,916 application forms related to 449,914 people. 83,739 applicants declared Slovak nationality also before 1930 and they were not considered to be re-slovakizants. From the remaining 366,175 candidates, the commission accepted 284,814 and refused 81,361 candidates for various reasons.[61]
An important issue with the slovakization procedure was, that the "reslovakized" Hungarians did not take the forcible change of ethnicity seriously, because it is impossible to force someone to forget his culture and language suddenly. A Slovak journalist wrote the following about the "reslovakized" city ofNové Zámky (Hungarian:Érsekújvár):[62]
„80% of the Hungarian population of Nové Zamky re-Slovakized . . . On the other hand, the fact remains that one can barely hear Slovak spoken in Nové Zámky. You will never find these 80% Slovaks. Only a few government employees speak Slovak here and there. What happened to the re-Slovakized persons?"
— J. Miklo; Nás Národ (1947)
With the disappearance ofEdvard Beneš from the political scene, the Czechoslovak government issued decree No. 76/1948 on April 13, 1948, allowing those Hungarians still living in Czechoslovakia, to reinstate Czechoslovak citizenship.[51] A year later, Hungarians were allowed to send their children to Hungarian schools, which had been reopened for the first time since 1945,[51] although Hungarians remaining in Slovakia were subjected to extremely heavy pressure to assimilate,[63] and complaints reached Moscow about forced enrollment of Hungarian children in Slovak schools.[63]
Most Slovakized Hungarians gradually readopted their Hungarian ethnicity. As a result, "The Re-Slovakization Commission" ceased operations in December 1948.
Despite their promises to settle the issue of the Hungarians in Slovakia, in 1948 Czech and Slovak ruling circles still maintained the hope that they could deport the Hungarians from Slovakia.[58] According to a 1948 poll conducted among the Slovak population 55% were for "resettlement" (deportation) of the Hungarians, 24% said "don't know", 21% were against.[63] Under slogans for the struggle with class enemies, the process of dispersing dense Hungarian settlements continued in 1948 and 1949.[63] By October 1949 preparations were made to deport 600 Hungarian families.[63]
Finally, on 25 July 1949, Czechoslovak and Hungarian delegations met in Štrbské pleso and signed so-called Štrba protocol (Slovak:Štrbský protokol) which ended the law disputes between Hungarian and Czechoslovak property and legal question and compensation of deported Hungarians.[64]
In 2002 beforeSlovakia and Hungaryjoined the European Union in 2004, Hungarian politicianViktor Orbán demanded the repeal of theBeneš decrees, but theEuropean Parliament asserted that "the decrees did not constitute an insurmountable obstacle to accession."[65] Slovak politician Monika Beňová-Flašiková accused the Hungarian politicians for pushing "revanchist" policies which could destabilize Europe.[65] Later on the Hungarian members of theSlovak parliament requested for compensation and for a symbolic apology to the victims of the expulsions.[65] As an answer, the Slovak government adopted a resolution in September 2007 which declared that the Beneš decrees are inalterable.[65]
Czechoslovakia (being a Socialist country at that time) financed the following purely Hungarian institutions for the Hungarians in Czechoslovakia as of early 1989: 386 kindergartens, 131 elementary schools, 98 secondary schools, 2 theaters, 1 special Hungarian language publishing house (6 publishing houses also publishing Hungarian literature) and 24 newspapers and journals.The first Hungarian-language university in Slovakia was opened only in 2004 – theSelye János University.
According toThe Minorities at Risk Project:
During the socialist regime, Slovak nationalism was largely kept in check by the strongly centralist Prague regime. The 1968 switch to a federal arrangement gave greater scope to Slovak nationalism, however. New policies of assimilation included progressive Slovakization of education, elimination of Hungarian place-names from signs, bans on using Hungarian in administrative dealings and in institutions and workplaces, and pressure to Slovakize Hungarian names. Nonetheless, the most significant exclusionary factor in Hungarians’ social situation under the socialist regime was most likely their ownrefusal to integrate into the Czechoslovak system and to learn the language. Without a fluency in the official language, their economic and political opportunities were severely limited.[66]
TheParty of the Hungarian Coalition (SMK) andMost–Híd are the major Hungarian minority parties in Slovak politics. Since 1993 a Hungarian minority party has always been a member of theparliament. As of 2012, a Hungarian minority party spent 10 out of 19 years in government.
These parties are fighting forminority rights in Slovakia, such as the right todual citizenship, which is granted by Hungary[67] but not by the Slovak state,[68][69][70] who have passed a law expecting others states to letSlovaks living abroad to retain their Slovak citizenship.[71]
Under Communism, the Hungarian minority issue was confined invariably to the position of Slovaks within the Czechoslovak state, and therefore it was ignored in any systematic way.[72] But thefall of Communism reinforced national identities and demolished the ideology of 'the socialist unity of nations'.[72] Thebreak-up of Czechoslovakia was a process of national redefinition and assertion in Slovakia.[72]
"The oppression of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia gained momentum with the formation of the Slovak state in 1993, increasing even more sharply sinceVladimír Mečiar came to power for the third time in December of 1994."
Under the premiership of Mečiar prone topopulism, exclusivist Slovaknationalism,and the use of extralegal measures, independent Slovakia approachedauthoritarianism.[74] Mečiar turned the Hungarian minority into a scapegoat for Slovakia's bad economic situation.[74] Numerous articles and books containinganti-Hungarian propaganda appeared, and the Hungarians were accused for the destruction of the 'first Slovak state', and for the ‘one-millennium-long oppression’ of Slovak nation.[74]
During the redrawing of the administrative boundaries of Slovakia, Hungarian politicians suggested two models; the so-called 'Komárno proposals'.[75] The first proposal was a full ethnic autonomy of the southern Slovak districts with Hungarian majority, while the second suggestion was to create three counties in southern Slovakia to bring together the main centers of Hungarian population.[75] Although a territorial unit of this nameexisted before 1918, the borders proposed by SMK were significantly different. The proposed region would have encompassed a very long slice of southern Slovakia, with the explicit aim to create an administrative unit with ethnic-Hungarian majority. Hungarian minority politicians and intellectuals thought that such kind of administrative unit is essential for the long-term survival of the Hungarian minority. Both proposals were rejected by the Slovak government in favour of an eight county model of north-south (and not east-west) governance, which has been seen to weaken the electoral power of Hungarians.[75][76][77] According toMiklós Duray, a politician of theParty of the Hungarian Coalition: "Administrative jurisdictions of Slovakia were geographically modified in a clear case ofgerrymandering.[73] The administrative system governed by laws created in 1991,[note 1] included 17 primary jurisdictions and 2 secondary jurisdictions, with a majority Hungarian population.[73] The 1996 law[note 2] eliminated this system of administration.[73] In the reorganized system only 2 primary administrative jurisdictions have a Hungarian majority population (Dunajská Streda andKomárno).[73] Furthermore, 8 secondary administrative jurisdictions were created, 5 with Hungarian populations in the 10 to 30 per cent range.[73] In 1998, these jurisdictions had regional self governing communities, where the diminished proportion of Hungarians made certain they played a subordinate role in self government."[73] After the regions became autonomous in 2002, SMK was able to take power in theNitra Region and it became part of the ruling coalition in several other regions.
Before the Slovak independence two main issues appeared regarding language: the right to use non-Slovakized versions of women's names and the use of bilingual street signs.[78] Non Slovaks were forced to Slovakize female personal names in official documents by attaching the Slovak feminine suffix '-ová'.[79] Members of ethnic minorities were restricted in their choice of given names, as registry offices accepted only names from a limited list only.[79] After ten years wrangling, the second Dzurinda cabinet eased these restrictions.[80]
The Slovak Constitution from 1992 asserts that the ‘state language’ on the territory of theSlovak Republic isSlovak.[81] At the same time this constitution entails explicit provisions forminorities, including language right.[82] These provisions were reinforced in 2001.[82]International treaties like theFramework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (ratified by Slovakia in 1995) or theEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ratified by Slovakia in 2001) and the1995 Treaty on Good Neighbourly Relations and Friendly Cooperations between Slovakia and Hungary protect the language rights of minorities.[82] Article 34. of the 1992 constitution asserts that"citizens of ethnic minorities have the right to be educated in their language, the right to use it in dealings with authorities, and the right to participate in the solution of affairs concerning national minorities and ethnic groups".[79] These provisions afford a high standard of protection, but still, these legislative instruments do not warrant the implementation of the postulated rights.[79] In most cases the disfrancishement evolves when there is insufficient political will to legislate the provisions as laws.[79] This happened between 1992 and 1998 (i.e. under Mečiar's government).[79]Slovak nationalist demands for a language law detaining the use ofHungarian in public institutions already appeared in 1990.[83] Finally, the Meciar government pushed through legislation restricting the use ofminority languages in public institutions.[78] In 1995, theSlovak Parliament passed Act No 270 on the State Language of Slovakia, which came into power on 1 January 1996.[84] This act revoked the more tolerant Act No 428 passed in 1990.[84] The 1995 act emphasized the significance of the Slovak language for Slovak nationalism and statehood, by consolidating the exclusivistmonolingualism.[84] The new act considerably limited the use of minority languages, that is, of Hungarian, which had featured on bilingual signposts with placenames in predominantly Hungarian areas, and inbilingual school certificates issued to students in Hungarian minority schools.[84] According to Duray:"An official language law[note 3] was promulgated providing the legal framework for the official use of the Slovak language not only in official communications but also in everyday commerce, in the administration of religious bodies, and even in the realm of what is normally considered private interaction, for example, communications between patient and physician."[73] In 1999, theDzurinda government passed Act No 184 on theUse of the Languages of the Minority Communities,[84] which reintroduced the institution of bilingual school certificates and provided that in communes with more than 20 percent of inhabitants belonging to a given minority, the minority language can be used in administration, andsignposts with placenames can be bilingual.[84] Furthermore, Article 10, prohibiting doing business and drafting contracts in any otherlanguage but Slovak, was abolished from the Act.[84] However the act limits itself to only official contacts with the state and thus fails to overcome the 1996 act ensuring the use of Slovak in culture, schools and media.[85] Language rights in education have also been a sphere of antagonism between the Slovak state and the Hungarian minority.[86] Bilingual education in primary and secondary schools is currently permitted.[86] However, the array of subjects that should be taught in each language remained a highly contested issue.[86] Government proposals prior to the 1998 elections (i.e. under Mečiar's government) even suggested that certain subjects should be taught only by teachers of 'Slovak origin' to ensure that the Slovak population living in areas with significant Hungarian populations should be able to assimilate themselves into mainstream Slovak life.[86] According to Duray: "On March 12, 1997 (i.e. under Mečiar's government), the Undersecretary of Education sent a circular to the heads of the school districts making known the following regulations: In Hungarian schools the Slovak language should be taught exclusively by native speakers.[73] The same exclusion criteria applies to non-Slovak schools in the teaching of geography and history.[73] (The Undersecretary modified the language of this regulation later by changing the term "exclusively" for "mainly".)[73] In communities where the Hungarian community exceeds 40% of the total population the teachers of Slovak schools receive supplementary pay.[73] In all communities which include a Hungarians population and where there is no school or there is no Slovak school, wherever possible a Slovak school should be opened, but not a Hungarian one."[73][note 4] At the end of the 1998 school year a large number of Hungarian pupils handed back their school report that were issued only in Slovak.[86]
In 2003, there were 295 Hungarian elementary schools and 75 secondary schools in Slovakia. In most of them Hungarian was used as themedium of instruction, excluding 35 elementary schools and 18 secondary schools, which were bilingual.[87]
After the parliamentary elections in 2006, the nationalistSlovak National Party (SNS) ofJán Slota became a member of the ruling coalition led byRobert Fico. In August a few incidents motivated byethnic hatred caused diplomatic tensions between the countries. Mainstream Hungarian and Slovak media blamed Slota's anti-Hungarian statements from the early summer for worsening ethnic relations. (Further informations:2006 Slovak-Hungarian diplomatic affairs, andHedvig Malina).
On 27 September 2007 the Beneš decrees were reconfirmed by the Slovak parliament which legitimized theHungarians and Germans calumniation and deportation from Czechoslovakia afterWorld War II.[88]
In 2008,Ján Mikolaj (SNS), minister of education propagated changes in the Hungarian schools of Slovakia. According to a new education law plan, the Hungarian language which was educated as mother tongue until now will be considered a foreign language – and taught in a smaller proportion of lessons. The only textbooks allowed to be used in Hungarian schools will be those translated from Slovak books and approved by Slovak administration.[92]
In October 2008 Hungarian parents and teachers sent back Hungarian textbooks to the Minister of Education.[93] The books contained geographical names only in Slovak violating the basic rules of theHungarian language and the minorities' right of usage of their native language.[93]
In November 2008 Prime Minister Robert Fico has again promised, this time at a cabinet meeting in Komárno, southern Slovakia, that an ongoing problem with textbooks for ethnic Hungarian schools in Slovakia will be resolved.[94] Though as of November 2008 Ján Slota still insists on the grammatically incorrect version (Slovak language names in Hungarian sentences) and having the correct Hungarian name only afterwards.[95][96][97][98]
The Slovak authorities denied the registration of a Hungarian traditional folk art association, because they used the Hungarian wordKárpát-medence (Carpathian Basin). According toDušan Čaplovič the word and the association is against the sovereignty of Slovakia, furthermore the word is fascist, it is familiar with the GermanLebensraum, and Hungarians use it in this ideology.[99][100][101][102][103]On September 1, 2009 more than ten thousand Hungarians held demonstrations to protest against thelanguage law that limits the use of minority languages in Slovakia,[104] in both countries.[105] The law calls for fines of up to £4,380 for anyone "misusing the Slovak language.[106]
The particular anti-Hungarian edge of the Slovak public discourse reached its top in the 2010 parliamentary elections, when numerous parties have been campaigning with latent to openly anti-Hungarian slogans. The presently governingSmer has rented billboards that have warned that "They have given power to SMK! They will do it again!",[107] alleging that forming a coalition with SMK would be dangerous.SNS went even further and published openly anti-Hungarian posters (see the picture on the right) asserting that Slovakia's on the brim of being conquered by Hungary due to the new Hungarian government's actions. Posters by SNS have been prominently featured in areas with predominantly Hungarian populace too.
The ethnic relationship ofPrešov Region is complex and volatile. A long-term cultural and everyday cohabitation ofRusyns, Slovaks andHungarians, under the prepodence of the non-Rusyn element led to the linguistic Slovakization of Rusyns, while in some parts (in cities and ethnic islands in the south) they were Magyarized. Still, in both cases they preserved their religion (Greek Catholicism). Until the 1920s, the Slovak-speaking Greek-Catholics composed a transitional group that was connected with the Rusyns through religion and traditions, with Slovak as their language. Their number was gradually increasing with the transition of the parts of Rusyn population to the Slovak language. Slovakization of the Rusyn population increased in the times of the Czechoslovak authorities (since 1920). The Greek Catholics and Orthodox started to perceive themselves as Slovaks. It is difficult to estimate the distribution of theOrthodox and theGreek Catholics by the language as well as to determine the number of Rusyns because both the Hungarian and Czechoslovak censuses provided the incorrect number of Rusyns, but it contains roughly 50–100 000 people. According to censuses the decrease of the number of Rusyns was influenced not only by Slovakization but also by emigration of a significant number of Rusyns from Prešov, mainly to the Czech lands.
The Slovak pressure on Rusyns in Slovakia increased after 1919 when Czechoslovakia incorporatedTranscarpathia to the east of theUzh River. The Slovakization of Rusyns (and Ukrainians) was a part of the program of theSlovak People's Party, whose leader refused to cooperate with the Rusyn politicians of Transcarpathia but cooperated with Hungarian-speaking A. Brody. Therefore, the Rusyn politicians opened the links with theCzech political parties which were supportive of neutrality towards the Rusyn question. The cultural Slovak-Rusyn relations at the time were minimal.[108]
The early Hungarian censuses ignored the Polish nationality, all ethnic Gorals, which identified as Poles were registered asSlovaks.There was also a very strong process of Slovakization of Goral people throughout 18th–20th centuries, mostly done by Roman Catholic Church, in which institution the local aboriginal Polish priests were replaced with Slovak ones. Also, the institution of schooling was replacing the Polish language (Goral dialects) with Slovak during classes.[109][110][111]
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help){{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help){{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)...The most immediate demand of Slovak nationalism in 1990 was to 'make Slovak the only official language and force the population of 600,000 ethnic Hungarians to use only Slovak in dealing with authorities'...
[Meciar]...gerrymandered electoral districts in order to reduce ethnic Hungarian strength in parliament...
In the 1950 census only 367 thousand had declared themselves Hungarian, due to the Slovakization campaign that followed the Second World War