The Hungarian Prime Minister called for self-determination for Hungarian communities outside Hungary, not territorial autonomy, Minister of Foreign Affairs János Martonyi said at the GLOBSEC 2014 international security conference in Bratislava 14 May 2014.

Responding to a Slovak journalist’s question in connection with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s recent remarks on autonomy, Minister Martonyi highlighted that Prime Minister Orbán used the term in a broad context in his speech, when he called for self-determination and self-administration for Hungarian communities.

After his re-election as Prime Minister last Saturday, the Prime Minister stated that ethnic Hungarians were entitled to dual citizenship, community rights and autonomy. “These are topical issues in light of the situation in neighbouring Ukraine where 200,000 ethnic Hungarians live,” he added.

Addressing Miroslav Lajcak, his Slovak counterpart, Minister Martonyi said that concerning collective rights they had different viewpoints, but their aim was to continue a dialogue on this issue. “Our position is simple: we want to pursue a dialogue and we do not want to send ambiguous messages through the media,” Minister Martonyi said. Minster Lajcak, in response said it was not that “tragic” if the two countries had different viewpoints, adding that the possibility of „bringing these closer” would continue to be explored.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)