THE GOVERNMENT should appoint a new plenipotentiary for ethnic minorities, the non-parliamentary Hungarian Community Party (SMK) stated on June 14.
The post of government proxy for ethnic minorities, created after the Robert Fico government scrapped the post of deputy prime minister for national minorities and human rights, has been occupied by interim nominee Mária Jedlicková, a member of the Government Office staff, after László Nagy of the opposition Most-Híd party resigned from the post one year ago.
“Despite promises, no government proxy for ethnic minorities has been appointed,” SMK chair József Berényi told the June 14 press conference, as quoted by the TASR newswire. “Slovakia needs a dialogue with minorities, and the government needs it as well.”
Nagy resigned in June last year after Most-Híd urged him to do so because parliament rejected its bill on the use of languages of ethnic minorities. The amendment sought to introduce dual-language signs at railway stations in ethnically mixed areas.
Prime Minister Robert Fico said after Nagy announced his resignation that the cabinet would find an appropriate replacement to carry on the office’s work immediately.
“If they don’t want to do it, then somebody else will. There are other people who speak the languages of ethnic minorities and know their stuff in that particular domain,” Fico said back then, as quoted by TASR. “This doesn’t necessarily mean that it has to be a member of the ethnic-Hungarian minority - there are Ruthenians and Czechs for that matter, too. A person from any ethnic minority can be chosen.”
Source: TASR
Compiled by Michaela Terenzani from press reports.
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information
presented in its Flash News postings.
