The ethnic-Hungarian SMK is a party that merely serves to express views of the chairman of Hungary's Fidesz - Hungarian Civic Union party of Viktor Orbán – in Slovakia, said MP Dušan Jarjabek of the Smer party on October 17, the TASR newswire wrote.
Jarjabek was speaking in the wake of comments made by Orbán earlier on the day, who stressed the need for a joint planning of the future of Hungarians living in the Carpathian Basin. Orban made the comments in his address to delegates of SMK party convention.
Orban also said that every community has the right to autonomy, which is a widely accepted European value and called for application of the same standards all across Europe. He stressed that Hungarians living in the Carpathian Basin should have the same rights as, for instance, Catalans living in Spain.
According to Mária Sabolová from the opposition Christian-Democratic Movement, KDH, Orban's statements constitute “excessive comments on the situation in another country”. Opposition Slovak Democratic and Christian Union, SDKÚ-DS, MP Tomáš Galbavý stressed that Orbán's claims need to be viewed in the context of an election campaign and building-up of positions ahead of the upcoming general election in Hungary next year. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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