Hungary-Slovak citzenship row heats up
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Hungary today passed a law offering citizenship to the approximately two million ethnic Hungarians that live outside its borders. Though most of Budapest's neighbours reacted calmly to the news, the bill has enraged Slovakia - which immediately came up with its own tit-for-tat measures.
The citizenship law was one of the flagship projects of the central-right Fidesz party, which recently won Hungary's general election.
It grants people who can prove both their Hungarian ancestry and their mastery of the language the right to apply for citizenship without having to live in the country. It does not, however, give such applicants voting rights, so in effect it is only a "symbolic issue", says Euranet correspondent Nick Thorpe.
Symbolic or not, the issue has sparked outrage in neighbouring Slovakia, which was already embroiled in a long-running row with Budapest over the treatment of its ethnic Hungarian minority. Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has repeatedly described the bill as a "threat to national security" and warned Hungary of stern measures if it passed the bill.
Today the Slovak cabinet made good on Prime Minister Robert Fico's threat to retaliate by making amendments to its own citizenship law - which, if passed by parliament, would effectively strip any Slovak citizen of their citizenship if they attempt to take up Hungary's offer.
Hungary's Prime Minister-elect Viktor Orban, head of Fidesz, had previously dismissed Mr. Fico’s remarks as a "provocation" intended to win public support ahead of the Slovakian elections on 12 June.
