Year 2005

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The Hungarian President Paying Official Visit to the Slovak Republic

December 8, 2005

On 8 – 9 December 2005, Hungarian President Laszló Sólyom officially visited the Slovak Republic. With his counterpart President Ivan Gašparovič, they stated a high-quality economic cooperation, and talked about the V4 cooperation and the necessity to bring the V4 policy closer to citizens. Moreover, the partners discussed education, in particular in connection with University of J. Seley in Komárno, Slovakia. They stressed that the establishment and activity of this University means a major step. The Hungarian President would appreciate financing the University’s activity on the basis of a mutual agreement. Regarding attention paid to fellow-countrymen, Ivan Gašparovič mentioned some arguments of general support of the Hungarian ethnic minority enjoying all the guaranteed opportunities in the fields of education, culture, economy and politics, including the presence of Hungarian representatives in the Government and in the Parliament, which, however, cannot be said about the Slovak ethnic minority living in Hungary. He added, however, that this situation was not sufficiently influenced by a positive approach from the Slovak party either. The partners also discussed the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Joint Hydropower Project. They agreed on the fact that the pace of relevant talks is very slow. Ivan Gašparovič agreed with the opinion of László Sólyom that the mutual negotiations should be more intensive, being focused on finding a common solution. According to Ivan Gašparovič, however, the talks should rely on a professional basis rather than political one.

The Presidents spent quite a lot of time talking about the results of the regional elections in the Nitra Self-Government Region. In this connection the Hungarian President mentioned negative responses in Hungary to these elections. President Ivan Gašparovič disproved these statements by arguments of democratic election of people not being satisfied with the performance of the existing regional self-government in favour of the Hungarian ethnic minority, even being under suspicion of violating law. In this connection Ivan Gašparovič pointed out the fact that also the Hungarian political parties had joined together to form the Party of Hungarian Coalition so that they would succeed in the election. Nevertheless, in the case of these elections, it was not a demonstration of an anti-Hungarian attitude, rather efforts of the Slovak political parties to win some seats in the regional Parliament.
The Presidents devoted a large part of the talks to historical correlations, whereby the Hungarian President mentioned the deplorableness of Magyarization pressures in the 19th century, and he labelled the forced Magyarization as false in the historical context. He also referred to a potential solution in form of a joint declaration of appeasement and closing of this historical period in the life of both nations. President Ivan Gašparovič likewise admitted some goodwill to consider apologizing for the post-war displacement of Hungarians from Slovakia, though not apologizing to those who in 1938 - 1939 committed injustice against citizens of Slovak nationality.
At the close of the meeting, President László Sólyom invited President Ivan Gašparovič to an official visit to the Republic of Hungary.

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