SLOVAK PRIME minister Robert Fico has stoked tension with neighbouring Hungary by accusing his country’s media of promoting Hungarian far-right groups that he has called “half-insane neo-fascists”.
The Bratislava and Budapest governments regularly clash over Slovakia’s treatment of its 500,000- strong Hungarian minority and Hungary’s attitude towards a country whose territory it controlled until after the first World War.
Mr Fico’s claim comes at a particularly sensitive time for ethnic relations in central Europe, however, as rights groups warn that the economic crisis is boosting the popularity of nationalist organisations that feed on and fuel resentment towards minorities.
“It is simply unheard of that a movement campaigning for a change of borders and autonomy in southern Slovakia can do its own promotion in the Slovak press,” said Mr Fico in reference to far-right Hungarian groups that he claims are recruiting in his country. Mr Fico regularly accuses the media of undermining him and is in turn often criticised for trying to limit press freedom.
Slovak and Hungarian leaders blame each other for failing to combat domestic extremism, with Bratislava pointing to the formation of far-right groups like the Hungarian Guard, and Budapest complaining about the presence of a nationalist party in Slovakia’s ruling coalition.
