Hungarian parties in Slovakia don’t make it into Parliament

A conservative columnist finds it sad that the Hungarian minority will be left without ethnic representation in the Slovak Parliament as a result of the competition between the two Hungarian parties.

In Sunday’s Slovak Parliamentary election, both Hungarian minority parties failed to pass the threshold. The Fidesz-backed Party of the Hungarian Community got 3.9 per cent of the votes, while the Most-Híd party that was part of the previous governing coalition received a mere 2 per cent.

In Magyar Hírlap, Zoltán Veczán regrets that after 30 years, no ethic party will represent Hungarians in the Slovak Parliament. The pro-government commentator thinks however that the failure may also serve as a wake-up call for Hungarians in Slovakia. Veczán points out that ethnic Hungarians still constitute 8.5 per cent of Slovakia’s population, and therefore a joint and credible party could easily pass the Parliamentary threshold, if Hungarian votes were not split between competing parties. To lure back Hungarian voters, Hungarian parties in Slovakia need to change, Veczán warns.

Tags: Slovakia, transborder politics