Ethnic Hungarian Parties Gear Up for Talks on Cooperation

Bratislava, June 26 (TASR) – Ethnic-Hungarian political parties are launching talks on potential co-operation in the run-up to next year’s parliamentary election, TASR learnt on Wednesday.

It was Most-Hid that declared its interest in talks after its Republican Council session on Saturday. The coalition party intends to hold negotiations with parties that share similar values and the invitation is extended to non-parliamentary parties, to which Most-Hid will offer spots on its slate.

“In line with the resolution by Most-Hid’s Republican Council, we reached out to a number of parties, including MKDA-MKDSZ. This political party was the first to accept the offer to negotiate on co-operation in the interest of preserving and ensuring strong political representation for ethnic Hungarians and other national minorities living in Slovakia. Talks with MKDA-MKDSZ will be held on Friday, according to a preliminary agreement,” TASR was told by Most-Hid spokesperson Klara Debnar.

“On June 25, Most-Hid invited our party MKDA-MKDSZ to talks on co-operation. We accepted the offer,” confirmed MKDA-MKDSZ leader Csaba Feher. He finds it premature, however, to comment as to whether MKDA-MKDSZ members would run on Most-Hid’s slate.

SMK plans to hold its own Republican Council session on Saturday, where it will announce its next course of action. The party is not opposed to the prospect of talks and received the invitation. “We will talk with anyone who is in favour of united representation of the ethnic Hungarian minority in Slovakia,” said SMK spokesperson Helena Fialova.

Talks are being proposed to SMK also by non-parliamentary Hungarian Forum led by Zsolt Simon, a former member of SMK and Most-Hid. “We invited the SMK delegation to a working lunch, where we want to start discussion about the values that would enable the parties to collaborate,” he stated.