BRATISLAVA, April 1, (WEBNOVINY) — MOST-HID Chairman Bela Bugar accused the opposition on Friday of utilizing each topic to create an atmosphere of fear and to intimidate the citizens. “It is useless and inappropriate to convene a session dealing with statements of Viktor Orban. We do not know yet how the Hungarian Republic is considering election rights; whether it is to be a passive or active right. The session is unnecessary at the moment. We have certain diplomatic possibilities. The foreign minister is enough experienced to know when to react,” Bugar told reporters. The MOST-HID leader believes that the unscheduled session was initiated not to resolve the problem but its aim is to attract voters. He underscored that deputies of his party will not vote for the agenda of the session.
Bugar says that it is obvious in the ongoing parliamentary debate on the amendment to the law on the use of languages of national minorities that the opposition is making efforts to associate the law on minorities with what the Hungarian side or Orban do or say. “We do not want to be hostages of what Hungary says. The law on the use of languages of national minorities is necessary for citizens of other nationality in Slovakia,“ said Bugar. He pointed to the fact that Orban started to speak about the election right for Hungarians living outside Hungary the moment a debate on the use of minority languages was kicked off in Slovakia. “We mind it. We see behind that a certain effort of some politicians to abuse sensitive issues, I speak about Orban, Fico and Slota. I would be glad if we at least once tried to not react according to Orban’s expectations. It is far more important for us to adopt laws for our citizens and not to organize external interventions in the law-adoption process,” he said. Bugar underscored that the time has come when the EU has to say how it will manage elections to national parliaments because directives for elections to the European Parliament and municipal parliaments have been already known.
Opposition SNS leader Jan Slota considers initiative of the strongest opposition party SMER-SD to convene an unscheduled parliamentary session, where the party plans to adopt a resolution asking the Cabinet to take specific measures and declarations towards Hungary’s policy regarding Slovakia, to be surprising and even disgusting. “They should have listened to us much sooner, we could have resolved the problem together and SMER-SD would not have to make this fuss today. SMER-SD should not have collaborated with SMK and MOST-HID in the recent past and now, when it is impossible to halt this whooshing Hungarian roller they did not have to play the role of the Messiah. Why is it that SMER-SD discovered America only now? Why was the party not listening to us when we were together in the ruling coalition and tried to muffle our opinions and joined others in calling our stances extreme and radical? Everybody should apologize to us and finally take games of the Hungarian politics seriously,” said Slota in a statement for the SITA news agency.
The strongest opposition party SMER-SD has asked for convening an unscheduled parliamentary session where it wants to ask the Slovak Cabinet for specification of concrete steps and statements regarding Hungary’s policy in relation to Slovakia. The session is to be held next week.
SITA