AP) – In a borderless European Union that boasts 23 official languages, one member, Slovakia, has enacted a law that limits the use of the languages of some fellow EU members.
The extraordinary step has roots in animosities that go back to the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and has Slovakia’s large Hungarian minority afraid of being pursued by the language police.
Slovakia was once part of Hungary and is home to a population of 520,000 ethnic Hungarians who complain of discrimination by the Slovak government.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has said the law does not apply to private individuals – only to officials and state institutions – but there are clear signs the legislation has started to affect everyday life.
Since the law came into force on Sept. 1, Szucs said she’d been involved in several incidents at her workplace. On one occasion, she was at the cash register and speaking in Hungarian to one of the buyers when someone in line warned her about her choice of language.
The law, which took effect on Sept. 1, limits the use of Hungarian and Slovakia’s other minority languages, in public and calls for fines of up to euro5,000 ($7,300) for anyone “misusing” language. The terms of the law are ambiguous, and officials have yet to spell out what constitutes an infraction.
Tensions between Slovakia and Hungary over the law have had serious diplomatic consequences, such as an unprecedented ban last month on a private visit to Slovakia by Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom.
Friction dates back to the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when Slovakia was absorbed into the sprawling state ruled by Hapsburgs from Vienna and Budapest.
Recently, relations between the countries took a hit when Jan Slota’s ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party became part of Slovakia’s government coalition in 2006.
While many Hungarians in Slovakia criticized the language law, most also blamed politicians for the squabbles.
“We have become a lightning rod for a political storm and it is difficult,” said Denes Bolcskei, a 34-year-old bookstore owner in Komarno, a city with a majority Hungarian population on the shores of the Danube River, which separates the two countries.
Bolcskei said that because of the new language law, he will change some of the signs in his shop – where 60 percent of his inventory consists of Slovak and Czech books and the rest Hungarian – to always have Slovak listed first.
Vollebaek has said that while the basic aspects of the Slovak language law conform with international standards, some parts of the legislation, especially the intent to levy fines, could be problematic.
“The imposition of fines might easily create or exacerbate tensions and should in principle be avoided,” Vollebaek said in his opinion on the language law issued in July.
