We published a piece about Hungarian-language announcements in California that „Slovakia” was organizing a March 25 non-stop charter flight from Washington DC to Bratislava. Stranded Hungarian citizens could also buy one-way tickets for 1,100–2,500 EUR depending on travel class and “Slovakia” would also consider charter flights from Florida and California. (Read here) The announcement also appeared on the website of the […]
There are hundreds (possibly thousands) of stranded Hungarian citizens in the US, desperately trying to return to Budapest. US airlines has suspended most transatlantic service and there is little hope that flights will be restored soon. In the last couple of days Hungarian-language ads have appeared saying that „Slovakia” is organizing a non-stop charter flight on Wednesday, March 25 from […]
Slovakia held parliamentary elections on Saturday, February 29th and the vote was significant for two reasons. First, it brought the victory of the curiously named “Ordinary People” party (OĽaNO), which swept to power on a populist anti-corruption platform, garnering 25% of the vote. Second, for Hungarians, the election was an unhappy turning point, in that no Hungarian party passed the […]
Slovakia is in political turmoil after the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kusnirova. Mr. Kuciak was investigating corruption within the government of Prime Minister Robert Fico and connections between those in power to the Calabrian Mafia. Remarkably, the seven suspects arrested in connection to the murder were all released without charges. Mr. Fico’s Hungarian coalition partner, the […]
Last summer Konrád Rigó, a 38-year-old ethnic Hungarian and the State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture in Slovakia, gave a speech on Slovakia’s National Day. Mr. Rigó, who is a member of the Most-Híd party spoke at Dunajská Streda (Dunaszerdahely in Hungarian) explaining how sons of many nations fought with the partisans during World War II. In addition to […]
János Esterházy (1901-1957) was an ethnic Hungarian Slovak politician, a devout Catholic and member of the pro-Hitler Slovak Tiso parliament during World Wat II. Jozef Tiso, a Catholic priest and leader of Slovakia was convicted as a World War II criminal and hanged in 1947. Esterházy enthusiastically supported Hitler, Mussolini and pro-Hitler Miklós Horthy, Hungary’s ruler. After WWII he was […]
After 48 hour of offering no commentary whatsoever on a ruling by the European Court of Justice that dismissed both Hungary’s and Slovakia’s complaints about equitably resettling mostly Syrian refugees among EU member states, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán finally spoke to the issue in his usual Friday morning radio interview. The usually loquacious Hungarian prime minister was frugal with his […]
Robert Fico, Slovakia’s prime minister and a left-leaning politician not immune to populism, nationalism and euroscepticism, has distanced himself from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s hard-line anti-EU and anti-western rhetoric. Most crucially: Mr. Fico confirmed that for him, cooperation and a close alliance with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Germany and President Emmanuel Macron’s France is more important than cooperation among the […]
A total of 54 train stations in towns across southern Slovakia will have Hungarian signage in a matter of months, after years of pressure and protest from civil society. Slovak law allows for Hungarian signage, including street and place names, wherever the proportion of Hungarians exceeds 20% of the local population. Yet the country’s state railway company (Železnice Slovenskej republiky, […]
Hungarian, British, Filipino, Jamaican, German, Slovak, Indo-Caribbean, Syrian and Muslim–these are some of the peoples and cultures that you can explore on November 26th, 2016, at the International Day Festival hosted by St. Joseph’s Parish. The Roman Catholic community is celebrating its 160th anniversary this fall and while it was originally built on parishioners of primarily Irish and French background, […]
