Christopher Adam

Simmering tensions threatened to boil over between Hungary and Slovakia, as Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico decided to ban Hungarian President László Sólyom from visiting Slovakia, in order to unveil a statue of Saint Stephen, Hungary’s founding king, in the southern Slovak town of Komarno (Komárom). According to the most recent census, more than 60 percent of Komárom’s 37,000 residents are ethnic Hungarians and the town is located along the Danube, on the border between Hungary and Slovakia. Mayor Tibor Bastrnák had decided to erect the bronze statue in Komárom’s Lúdpiac Square, which depicts St. Stephen mounted on his horse.

Sólyom was about to cross over the bridge between Hungary and Slovakia, but held a news conference instead, in which he indicated that the Slovak government had effectively barred him from entering the country. „This is a situation unheard of, inexcusable and unexplainable in the relationship of two allied countries. It is especially so because of the reasoning behind the ban: that my presence would mean a security threat.” Sólyom said.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico claimed that Sólyom’s visit was an overt provocation, since it would have taken place on the anniversary of the Warsaw Pact invasion of the former Czechoslovakia, in August 1968, in which Hungarian troops had participated. Despite the region’s sensitive history, the Slovak government’s decision to ban Solyóm from entering contravenes the Schengen Agreement, which allows for free passage of people between the two countries and the suspension of all border controls.

But Fico, a left-wing nationalist, maintains that the visit threatened Slovak sovereignty. „Komarno lies in Slovakia’s territory, it’s not a Hungarian town. The president, the chairman of parliament and the prime minister of Slovakia have condemned the circumstances in which the Hungarian president chose to stress Hungarian statehood on sovereign Slovak soil,” Fico noted. Péter Balázs, Hungary’s foreign minister, has already lodged a complaint with European Union officials. „The president’s visit had been carefully planned, together with the Slovakian foreign ministry. We visited all the venues and locations, and we have obtained all the necessary permissions.” Balázs noted that the ban was „unprecedented and unacceptable.”