The Party of the Hungarian Community (SMKMKP) firmly rejected the direct intervention of the Department of State Language of the Ministry of Culture — as a state administration body — in the campaign for regional elections. The Ministry called upon the billboard advertising companies placing the election posters of the SMK-MKP to remove the posters of the party, as the term ‘regional elections’ was not indicated on the posters in Slovak, and the font size of the Slovak text was smaller than that of the Hungarian text.
We deem the choice of the language – and text layout – in which we seek the support of voters as a subject of fundamental political freedom. The SMK-MKP considers it natural and will continue to insist on the possibility to conduct its campaigns primarily in the mother tongue of its voters and to place a greater emphasis on the Hungarian text of its posters.
Nevertheless, the role of the State Secretary — appointed by the Most-Híd party — of the Ministry of Culture in this case is particularly worrying. Konrád Rigó, according to his own previous statement, personally approves each warning sent by the Ministry. Provided that he did not lie in his statements to the press, there are reasonable grounds for the suspicion of abuse of power, as he used his own Ministry to remove the posters of the SMK-MKP under the aegis of the state language law.
The SMK-MKP therefore calls on the Most-Híd party to remove its State Secretary from his post without delay. We call on Béla Bugár to propose an individual, to serve as State Secretary for Culture, who has made good progress in the amendment of the state language law created to the detriment of the Hungarian language instead of exceling in discounting the law politically.
(www.mkp.sk, 27 Oct 2017)
Bulletin on the Hungarian Community in Slovakia
