Protesters in front of the Slovak Embassy in Budapest
Hundreds of people from all political spectrums have gathered on Saturday in front of the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Budapest to protest against the Slovak’s government’s recent legislation targeting mainly the country’s Hungarian and Germany minority. According to the new amendment signed by President Pellegrini, people calling into question the validity of decrees issued in the 1940s that assigned collective guilt to all Hungarians based on their nationality, can now face up to six months in prison.
Photo: Hungary Today
In a growing sign of anger over the new legislation approved by the government of PM Robert Fico and his coalition partners, hundreds of people have gathered in Budapest to demonstrate against what they called an attack on free speech that is disproportionately affecting the Hungarian minority in Slovakia. This is due to the fact that in recent years the Slovak Land Fund has reactivated the arbitrary confiscation of private land belonging to groups the Benes Decrees have designated collectively as war-criminals in the 1940s. These are typically citizens of German or Hungarian descent.
Photo: Hungary Today
Speakers at the demonstration have pointed out that the concept of collective guilt based on ethnicity or nationality does not belong to the 21. century, and have expressed solidarity with members of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia, numbering some 400.000. Until recently the so called Benes Decrees have been treated as part of a darker, painful past, but the ongoing unlawful confiscation of private property belonging to certain nationalities has opened up the issue. All the while successive Slovak governments have refused to end the archaic and undemocratic practice.
“Democracy Even in Slovakia”, says the sign carried by one of the participants. Photo: Hungary Today
The organizers of the event have made it clear that the protest is apolitical, and asked participants not to display any signs belonging to political parties or election protests. Speakers at the event, mostly young graduates, have also kept their message neutral, except for one left-wing Slovakian activist journalist.
Photo: Hungary Today
The demonstration has started with singing of the Hungarian national anthem and went on entirely peacefully, with only a light police presence. It was notable how Hungary’s radical leftist Momentum Movement and opposition Tisza party activist stood side-by-side with the right-wing Our Homeland (Mi Hazánk) movement’s representatives in an entirely civilized manner.
Photo: Hungary Today
Photo: Hungary Today
Organizer of the event, László Katona Illés. Photo: Hungary Today
Despite pleas from the protest’s young organizers for a apolitical show of solidarity with Hungarians in Slovakia, some have still decided to exploit the event for their pre-election campaign. One stand sold opposition leader Péter Magyar’s biography, while Magyar himself was also in the crowd, making himself available for an impromptu press conference for the left-wing opposition media. The nationalists of Mi Hazánk movement could not resist the temptation of displaying their party’s flags and symbols during the demonstration either.
Stop Benes Demonstration in Budapest. Photo: Hungary Today
As to Hungarians in Slovakia, signs are that the Fico government’s attempt to intimidate them will not succeed. Örs Orosz, member of the Hungarian Alliance party, for instance, has reported himself to the police for questioning the Benes Decrees. It remains to be seen whether he will face any consequences for effectively mocking the new legislation.
As far as the government of Robert Fico is concerned, they are likely to be the main losers of this controversial new legislation. Polls show that there is no real appetite for anti-Hungarian sentiments. Furthermore, the current centrist-to-far-right government is now trailing eight points behind their liberal arch-rivals, and are almost certain to loose the next elections to a coalition of radical leftists, globalists and anti-establishment parties. Robert Fico’s re-activation of the Benes Decrees is also a fatal blow to the Visegrad 4 alliance just when it started to get back on its feet with the electoral win of patriotic forces in the Czech Republic.
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