“We find several passages of the June 3 Slovak parliamentary declaration to be unacceptable” – Statement of Foreign Minister Péter Balázs on Hungarian-Slovak relations

“The Parliament of the Slovak Republic held a session on June 3 and issued a declaration containing passages which we regard as unacceptable. Especially unacceptable are those sentences which claim that ‘deep concern is well-founded as nationalism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia growing to extremes in Hungarian society’ and ‘cheap demagoguery and nationalist remarks by some deputies and politicians of the Republic of Hungary undermining the peaceful co-habitation of Slovaks and Hungarians.’ It is a fact that the Hungarian Prime Minister, the President of the Republic and the Speaker of the Parliament have distanced themselves from Hungarian extremism, and so have the leaders of the parliamentary parties.

We find it even stranger that the Foreign Minister of the Slovak Republic chose to attach the declaration to a diplomatic note sent to EU and NATO ambassadors accredited to Bratislava just before the European Council's session on June 18 and 19. By doing so, Slovakia has deviated from the methods agreed to by the foreign ministers a month earlier.

Aside from this recent unfortunate incident, the Hungarian side declares again and in evolving the new phase of relations sticks to the principles of mutual respect, friendship, and co-operation based upon acceptance of each other. Neither side equates the other with political extremists, and we intend to solve problems together through direct dialogue."

(June 23, 2009)