The State Language Act represents a great diplomatic success for Slovakia, said Prime Minister Robert Fico in an interview with the TASR newswire on December 17.
The PM said the Slovak government’s approval of the implementation measures for the State Language Act is not in contradiction with the agreement reached between the Slovak and Hungarian prime ministers in September.
“I pay particular attention to what kind of promises I make, to whom, and whether or not I will be able to fulfill them,” said Fico.
He added that the agreement that had been reached with his Hungarian counterpart, Gordon Bajnai, was that not even a single paragraph needed to be changed in the Language Act. “That was specifically the case, the Act has not been amended,” said Fico to TASR.
Another part of the agreement was that Slovakia would formulate the implementation measures in accordance with the recommendations of the OSCE High Commissioner Knut Vollebaek. “All of his recommendations were incorporated into the measures,” Fico said.
Fico thinks that the Hungarian domestic political situation does not allow any politician, right- or left-wing, to act helpfully towards Slovakia. Bajnai regards the Slovak government’s approval of the implementation measures for the Language Act to be a violation of the agreement made between the two. Bajnai said a day earlier that Slovakia goes against Europe and the measures approved are in contradiction not only with the Szécsényi agreement but with the recommendations of OSCE High Commissioner as well. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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