Slovenská Pospolitosť (Slovak Solidarity)
THIS ultra–right civic association, which was a political party until it was outlawed in 2006, was dissolved by the Interior Ministry shortly before the talks between Prime Minister Robert Fico and his Hungarian counterpart, Ferenc Gyurcsány, on November 15. According to Euractiv.sk, a news site about European affairs, the Hungarian Guard is a paramilitary group that was founded in August 2007 by Hungary's rightist, non-parliamentary Jobbik party.
“This leads me to ask why Hungary has not rid itself of the neo-fascist Hungarian Guard?” Fico said during an interview on the STV public television station on November 16.
But on the very next day, which was also the 19th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, several hundred members of Slovak Solidarity marched through Bratislava. The police broke up the demonstration after one of the speakers spoke of “the inequality of races,” the SITA newswire reported.
“We do not want more immigrants, we do not need more different children of immigrants. We must fight for our race,” the JOJ TV channel quoted one of the speakers as saying.
Police explained that permission was granted for the march to take place, despite the ministry’s decision, because it had been requested by an individual, rather than by the association.
A year ago, only about 30 people took part in a similar event in Bratislava.
A demonstration also took place on November 17 in the Czech town of Litvínov, where members of a far-right group clashed with police after calling for Roma to be lynched. Marián Kotleba, the former leader of Slovak Solidarity Party, attended that demonstration as well.
The Hungarian Guard
Its founders cite impending threats from neighbouring countries as the reason for the Guard's existence.
European governments and institutions have harshly condemned the group, and Hungary's leaders have distanced themselves from it.
Upon its founding, Gyurcsány called on the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the group. But Fidesz, Hungary's main opposition party, stated only that the Guard should follow the law and not restrict people's freedoms.
On November 8, about 40 Hungarians crossed the Slovak border into Pribeník, in the Trebišov District, to protest the action taken by Slovak police against football fans in Dunajská Streda on November 1.
Police arrested 28 of them, who were wearing Nazi–era uniforms.
On November 10, members and supporters of the Hungarian Guard blocked a lane of traffic in Letkés, 150 metres from the border crossing with the Slovak village of Salka. The protests continued for several days.
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