Hungarian Self-Governing National Community of the Prekmurje Region/Muravidék
Hungarian Self-Governing National Community of the Prekmurje Region/Muravidék (abbreviated as MMÖNK) is the central organisation of the autochthonous Hungarian national community living in the Prekmurje Region/Muravidék, which performs self-governing, advocacy and other political activities and tasks. At the last census in Slovenia in 2002, which included data on ethnicity, 6243 people declared themselves as Hungarians and 7713 people declared Hungarian as their mother tongue. In a 20 km strip along the Hungarian-Slovenian border, five villages in the Prekmurje Region/Muravidék (Hodoš/Hodos, Moravske Toplice/Alsómarác, Šalovci/Sal, Lendava/Lendva, Dobrovnik/Dobronak) with mixed ethnicity (Hodoš/Hodos, Moravske Toplice/Alsómarác, Šalovci/Sal, Lendava/Lendva, Dobrovnik/Dobronak) are home to 83.5% of the Hungarian population in Slovenia (5212 people).
The MMÖNK was established in 1975 under Section 64 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia and the Law on Self-governing Ethnic Communities.
The competence of the MMÖNK covers mainly the tasks of the Hungarian national self-government communities above the level of the municipal Hungarian national self-government communities, universal Hungarian in the Prekmurje Region/Muravidék, as well as regional and national tasks. Its main activities include direct cooperation with the state institutions of the Republic of Slovenia and Hungary, and fostering relations with Hungarian organisations beyond the borders and other international institutions and organisations for the protection of minorities.
The basic legal and minority-related framework of Hungarian-Slovenian bilateral relations is laid down in the Hungarian-Slovenian Treaty on Friendship and Cooperation signed on 1 December 1992 and the Agreement on the guarantee of the special rights of the Slovene national minority living in the Republic of Hungary and the Hungarian national community living in the Republic of Slovenia signed on 6 November 1992.
MMÖNK is the negotiating partner of the state bodies in the enforcement of the rights of the Hungarian nationality.
The most important task of the MMÖNK is the protection and development of the mother tongue, the preservation of the national consciousness, the material and spiritual heritage of the Hungarian community in the Prekmurje Region/Muravidék, the promotion of its national interests and the exercise of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the law. The MMÖNK founded: 1.) the Hungarian Nationality Information Institute, which publishes the Hungarian-language weekly newspaper Népújság; 2.) the Hungarian Nationality Cultural Institute, whose main task is to cultivate and mediate the cultural activities of the Hungarian national community living in the Prekmurje Region/Muravidék; 3.) the Hungarian Regional Nationality Development Institute in Lendava/Lendva, which aims to promote economic development in the Prekmurje Region/Muravidék, and co-founded the Lendava/Lendva Bilingual Secondary School.