Employing somewhat of an overstatement, partial mobilisation was the only manoeuvre Slovakia did not employ in connection with a Hungarian law similar to one that it itself already has. Following the proposal submitted to the new Hungarian Parliament, which contains a draft proposal to simplify nationalization for Hungarians living beyond the borders, Bratislava recalled its ambassador to Budapest for consultation. Last Friday the Slovak government held an extraordinary session and Tuesday saw a session of the national security council. Prime Minister Robert Fico threatened to respond with stern measures, and spoke of "interference in internal affairs".

One of the reasons for this sabre-rattling can be found in Slovak internal politics. Since Slovakia is part of the Euro zone, the support to be provided for Greece will cost it billions, and the country has already been hit by the global crisis resulting in the popularity of the Smer party, led by Fico, dropping to 30 percent at a time when a parliamentary election is due on 12 June. One of the simplest ways of patching together his base and mustering new supporters is to hype up the Hungarian threat. None of the parties wish to be left out of this and everyone has joined in the chorus - according to their own temperament - from the Jan Slota type jingoists to the opposition centre-right Christian Democrats.     

Pretext for the campaign

It is no coincidence that the Hungarian parties (the Pál Csáky-led Hungarian Coalition Party and Béla Bugár's Híd Party have asked for the decision to be postponed. This led us to ask Zsolt Németh, the prospective secretary of state for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, if it would not have been wiser to wait with the extension of dual citizenship until after the Slovak elections on 12 June. "For the Slovak government the law is just a pretext and this became clear during the visit to Bratislava of the prospective minister for foreign affairs. The Fidesz politician told Heti Válasz that "The gesture he made and his detailed explanation were to no avail and did not change the situation at all". In his view, if the issue of dual citizenship had not been raised now, then its future possibility or the approaching ninety-year commemoration of Trianon would serve as a pretext for the anti-Hungarian campaign instead. Németh added that the extension of dual citizenship was an important promise made by his party and is a key identity forming element for Fidesz voters.

According to a survey carried out by Perspective Institute, 67 percent of those questioned support the initiative (Heti Válasz, 6 May 2010), and it was only among socialist voters that there was a majority who still did not agree with the extension of citizenship. The draft bill, which, among others, was written by Viktor Orbán, the prime minister-elect, states that "favourable conditions for nationalization will be extended to non-Hungarian citizens, who have ascendants with Hungarian citizenship or who can prove their Hungarian origin and demonstrate a knowledge of the language". Decisions would be made on the basis of an assessment by the Hungarian authorities on citizenship that does not require residence in Hungary, while maintaining the right to reject applicants who pose a risk to public safety or national security.

The EU agreement on citizenship ratified by both Hungary and Slovakia clearly sets out that the granting and extension of such is the sovereign right of a state, therefore, the European Union refers to this matter as being within the national scope of authority. 

Obligation to inform

Declaring its opinion in the status law of 2002 the Venice Committee, a body that provides advice on constitutional law alongside the European Council, stipulated earlier: "The pure fact that the recipients of a given rule of law are foreign nationals does not mean that the principle of territorial sovereignty has been infringed." Due to this more elaborated legal environment dual citizenship is more easily understood in Western Europe than the status law that was made during the previous Orbán government since, at that time, the latter established a link between Hungary and the Hungarian minorities living abroad without the granting of citizenship. According to Balázs Vizi of the Research Institute of Ethnic and National Minorities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS), given the current legal environment, the Slovak party is presenting a forced argument when it refers to the planned citizenship law as interference in internal affairs. "All that the European citizenship agreement stipulates is the obligation of the parties to inform each other, and this took place with the visit to Bratislava of the prospective Hungarian minister for foreign affairs. A joint decision and especially another state's right of veto in this matter are not mentioned in the document," explained the international lawyer.

Moreover, there is an abundance of precedents, as almost all of the neighbouring states have a similar law (see table). It is no accident that protest is as yet unforthcoming - at least up to now - from other countries. In 2005 Bratislava passed its own law according to which citizenship can be acquired without a knowledge of the language: it is sufficient for the applicant to have a Slovak ascendant and for two Slovakians living abroad to declare that the person in question is interested in the culture of our northern neighbour (moreover, the authorities in Bratislava take a lax approach to residency, which in principle is required).   

Despite all this, it cannot be ruled out that Robert Fico will carry out his threat and deprive those members of the Hungarian minority of their Slovak citizenship who submit an application for Hungarian citizenship too, since the European agreement quoted earlier allows this. However, this could easily backfire in the end, since a prohibition on discrimination does not allow this law to be directed exclusively at Hungarians. Bratislava could generally ban every form of dual citizenship, but this would then also punish the tens of thousands of Slovaks with Czech passports. Another possibility would be to prohibit the acquisition of a passport from another state after a certain date, but this would also be a disadvantage to non-Hungarian citizens.   

23 million Romanians?

It is not only Slovak ululation that needs to be taken into account, since there are also fears at home for the welfare system. "There is no welfare support that a Hungarian citizen is entitled to that  a Romanian living here is not," denied the popular misconception Miklós Soltész, the prospective state secretary of welfare for the Ministry of National Resources. Concerns are therefore unwarranted that after the introduction of dual citizenship "23 million Romanians" will sweep in to claim welfare support from the Hungarian offices. If such a danger existed, it would have been a reality for years now and not just in the case of Romania, but Slovakia and Slovenia too. Moreover, it would not only be Hungarian speakers who would come for the money but Romanians, Slovakians and Slovenians too. Yet, this is not happening since every EU citizen who lives and works in Hungary is able to get child benefit and maternity benefits irrespective of whether they have Hungarian citizenship.       

According to the press office of the Hungarian treasury, if Hungarians with dual citizenship remain in their country of birth, they will not be entitled to Hungarian benefits, just as they would not be without dual citizenship. Of course cynics say that it would not be difficult for them to register at the address of a Hungarian acquaintance living in Hungary, since nobody would check if a Romanian or Slovakian Hungarian was actually living here or not; thus, they could easily pocket the benefits. Luckily, the EU countries solved this problem well before the "cunning" Eastern Europeans' accession to the Union. If, for example, somebody claims child benefit in Austria (where benefits are far more generous than in Hungary), it would be to no avail, since according to the agreement between the two countries they would not be able to claim the same benefits in Hungary, too. A similar agreement has been made with all other EU countries, thus with Romania and Slovakia too, according to the press office of the Hungarian State Treasury.

The situation is different for people living in non-EU countries, i.e. Hungarians living in Carpathian Ukraine and in the Délvidék (Southern Region). They are only entitled to support - even if they live in Hungary - if their spouse or children are Hungarian citizens. However, acquiring dual citizenship would entitle them to the same rights as people born in Hungary, but their relatively small numbers would hardly deplete the treasury. Nor is there a danger that the Hungarians beyond the borders will empty the pension fund. Even if a Transylvanian Hungarian moves to the motherland, they will still only receive their Romanian pension and benefits as if they had remained in the country of their birth.

Hungarian health care provision is generally of a higher standard than that available in Romania or Slovakia, but there is still no need to fear an invasion. People without citizenship are not entitled to medical care - except emergency treatment - unless they pay contributions in Hungary. Of course there are exceptions: health care is free for Serbian and Croatian pensioners who have settled in Hungary; however, since this rule was adopted a while ago, extended citizenship will not affect this situation.

Dual citizenship is rather a gesture and primarily makes the situation easier for those who have already settled in Hungary as it frees them from the awkward procedure of a citizenship examination. At present even people who have lived in Hungary for a long time have to take an exam, even if they themselves are ethnic Hungarian, and have a spouse and children who are Hungarian citizens. The test is not a mere formality: in 2007 we reported a case in which the examining committees failed half of the Hungarians from beyond the borders seeking citizenship; they had to endure the added humiliation of being told they failed the "Hungarianness" part of the exam. (Heti Válasz, 3 December 2007).     

The other often mentioned (specious) argument against the extension of citizenship is granting the right to vote on mass, which would create a lasting rearrangement of the Hungarian political map. Since István Mikola made his self-destructive statement in 2006 (which referred to a twenty-year consolidation of power for the right through voting rights being granted to Hungarians beyond the borders) many people have taken it as gospel truth that the politician let slip Fidesz's super secret plan. 

The truth is, the draft bill makes no mention of this issue, and the right to vote will continue to only be exercised by those with Hungarian citizenship and permanent residence here. In theory it is not impossible that during election time somebody from for example Párkány, Slovakia could register as a permanent resident in Esztergom.  However, according to present practise, they would then have to declare that they had given up their permanent residence in the other country. This would be easy to verify in the EU's residence record departments. If people were willing to do this in order to be tourist voters and for example applied by the dozen to register at a Budapest address, the local public notary would be responsible for noticing this on drawing up the electoral roll.  

An important question is how many people would apply for simplified nationalization. We do not have accurate survey data, but the number of those holding a Certificate of Hungarian Nationality when the status law was introduced provide some essential information. There were proportionately the least from Felvidék (Slovakia) (120 thousand out of the 500 thousand Hungarians), and the highest proportion applied for documents from Carpathian Ukraine (100 thousand out of the 150 thousand Hungarians). The highest number of these certificates were granted in Transylvania (over half a million), and in Délvidék 110 thousand out of the 300 thousand Hungarians living there applied for it.