Robert Kaliňák, the vice-president of the Slovak government, spoke on the Slovak public radio on Wednesday evening about the fact that there is no question of confiscation in connection with the Beneš decrees, only the Slovak Land Fund is asking for the lands that would have belonged to them since 1945, reports Ma7 based on the radio show.
Kaliňák claimed that the land, which he believed belonged to the Slovak state, was now being illegally used by someone else. The sentence of the Slovak vice-president, as translated by Ma7, sounds like this: “Explain to me how the Beneš decrees can confiscate someone’s property. No way. Only the Land Fund applies for the property that should have belonged to them since 1945, but someone is not using it according to the law.”
The official Slovak government has perhaps never been so involved in the Beneš decrees before.
The issue of the Beneš decrees, which also discriminate against the Hungarians living there, has become a burning issue in the highlands in recent years. The President of the Slovak Republic signed it last December the lawwhich punishes anyone who questions the Beneš decrees with six months in prison. After the Second World War, the Czechoslovak state applied the principle of collective guilt to the Hungarian and German residents living on its territory, in many cases depriving them of their real estate, movable property, and residence. To this day, the decrees made into law are the unassailable basis of the Czech and Slovak state order, despite the fact that they no longer stand the test of human rights. The decrees became relevant after the Slovak government appropriated areas and properties due to highway construction, among other things.
The outgoing Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán already had discussions in mid-December with the Slovak government about the new legislation, but there was no development in the matter. Fidesz approached the topic cautiously due to its relationship with the Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico. At the same time, Péter Magyar was particularly active in the matter even before his election, specifically would have expelled him from Hungary the Slovak ambassador and the politician were there at that a also at a demonstration held in front of the Slovak embassy. For Hungarian this confrontation came to fruitionwhich can bring Hungary led by the Tisza government closer to the Hungarians across the border and even further away from the Slovak government Beneš decrees in his case. Fico said before the elections that he supported Orbán because “we would find ourselves on thin ice” in terms of Hungarian-Slovak relations if the Tisza Party fulfilled its promises on the Beneš decrees.
