The impoverishment of southern regions (with ethnic Hungarian inhabitants) in Slovakia has been a deliberate process since the regime change, and something must be done about it, said József Menyhárt, President of the Party of the Hungarian Community (SMK-MKP), on Tuesday at the conference on the opportunities for the development of economy of South-Slovakia held in Dunajská Streda (Dunaszerdahely).

The aim of a professional forum on the theme ‘New perspectives in the economic development of South Slovakia organised by the civil association Libertate is to present initiatives launched recently in South Slovakia with the goal of economic development, to harmonise the interests of economic operators in the southern region, and to provide space to them to express their needs.

József Menyhárt emphasised that the representatives of Hungarian economy in South Slovakia should outline a strategy which can effectively outweigh the deliberate process that has taken place in Slovakia since the regime change with the aim of impoverishing regions inhabited mostly by ethnic Hungarians. He stated that it is necessary to think in terms of sub-regions within the context of boosting the economy in the southern regions, and agriculture should be underlined in the plans.

‘It ought to be stressed that we are part of this country, and we must ask for what we are due from Slovakia with the assistance of Hungary; we must not content ourselves with what we get, as we pay the taxes in this country and farmers here have to manage using these sources,’ he said, noting also that they intend to mobilise an active group the members of which are wellintegrated in agriculture.
(MTI, 27 June 2017)