BRATISLAVA, September 30, (WEBNOVINY) — The party MOST-HID, a member of the ruling coalition in Slovakia, does not have official relations with the Hungarian governing party Fidesz, according to MOST-HID leader Bela Bugar. “Fidesz as well as the Hungarian government has to decide on their institutionalization,” stated Bugar, in reference to the nonexistent relations. The Hungarian government wants to cooperate with an ethnic party in Slovakia; however, as Bugar continued, MOST-HID is not such a party, as there are ethnic Hungarians, Slovaks, Ruthenians and other national minorities in it.
MOST-HID party has not received an invitation for meeting of the Forum of Hungarian Representatives of Carpathian Basin so far, said Bugar, adding that for MOST-HID, the problematic point is the resolution of the Hungarian Parliament through which this forum became subordinated to the Hungarian lawmaking body. At the same time, he added that if they received an invitation, they would come to the forum meeting once and they would speak up about their objection.
The head of MOST-HID met Thursday members of the Hungarian Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs at the MOST-HID headquarters. In his opinion, the meeting was very useful as also member of Hungarian radical party Jobbik was pleasantly surprised by the first-had information. Bugar wants that the Slovak and Hungarian parliamentary foreign committees discuss other important matters, not only the issues concerning national minorities.
Bugar also announced the start of further negotiations on an amendment to the Slovak law on citizenship. He pointed out that MOST-HID’s coalition partner the Christian Democrats (KDH) voted for legal norm that is currently in force. “The problem is how to back out of it,” he said. The aim of Bugar’s party is that the Slovak state authorities are not allowed not punish citizens for acquiring another state’s citizenship. According to him, if Justice Minister Daniel Lipsic wants to keep the sanctions in this law, he will violate the government’s program statement. He also announced that the coalition will submit a draft bill on using geographic names in minority textbooks as well as a law on funding cultures of ethnic minorities.
SITA