The Slovak National Party (SNS) has lost its legal case against former Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) leader Miklós Duray over his statement that the SNS is “a fascist party”. The Supreme Court on Wednesday, August 10, rejected an appeal filed by the SNS.
In a lawsuit begun in 2006, the SNS demanded that Duray pay Sk10 million (approximately €332,000) in compensation for damage inflicted on the party's reputation, but later appeared happy with Sk1 million (€33,200) in compensation granted by a district court. A regional court overturned that verdict in 2009, however, prompting the SNS to appeal to the Supreme Court. The party demanded compensation in response to an interview that Duray gave to Hungarian broadcaster InfoRadio in 2006, in which he called the SNS “a fascist party”. The SNS claimed that this damaged the standing of SNS in the then-governing coalition, caused a drop in election support, and harmed the party's reputation in the eyes of the European socialists. According to the regional court's verdict, Duray was supposed simply to apologise, which he did – but only in a letter written in Hungarian. The SNS later employed the services of a bailiff in order to extract an apology from Duray in Slovak.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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