Hungarian Self-Governance Aspirations in Slovakia
The Hungarian self-government aspirations in Slovakia after the fall of the communism emerged within the framework of the Coexistence Political Movement (Együttélés). On January 8, 1994, Coexistence organized the Komárno Grand Assembly, during which participants outlined two potential versions of Hungarian self-governance in Slovakia. According to the first version, a region contiguous with the Hungarian state border and inhabited by approximately 824 thousand people (61.5% Hungarian) would have been established. Under the second version, the previously described Hungarian-majority region would have been divided into three parts: between Bratislava and Sahy (525 thousand inhabitants, 63.1% Hungarian); between Sahy and Kosice (239 thousand inhabitants, 54.2% Hungarian); and in the South Zemplén and Ung regions (59 thousand inhabitants, 77.3% Hungarian). The Grand Assembly did not yield subsequent results; instead, in 1996, Slovakia adopted a new administrative division that, based on the foundations of “ethnopolitical gerrymandering”, structured the new administrative arrangement in a manner where the proportion of Hungarians did not exceed 25% in any county. In 1998, the Party of the Hungarian Coalition became a governing party; however, rather than pursuing territorial self-governance, the party sought to establish a region named ‘Dunamente (Komárom)’, with a population of 602 thousand (55.2% Hungarian), between Samorín and Sahy. Nevertheless, during the 2001 administrative reform, the Slovak political majority disregarded this demand of the Hungarian governing party. In 2014, the Party of the Hungarian Community drafted its own proposal of self-government, proposing a dual system: firstly, a minority self-government system based on a personal principle with competencies in culture, education, language use, and media for the peripheral Hungarian communities; secondly, a regionally self-governing entity endowed with broad competencies and a special legal status in areas predominantly inhabited by Hungarians.