According to the most recent census data, the decrease in the population of Hungarians in Slovakia was smaller than in other neighboring countries, the State Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office responsible for national policy said at the Hungarians in Slovakia conference on Tuesday in Budapest.
János Árpád Potápi highlighted at the meeting of the National Policy Research Institute: it was a great help that it was possible to determine who is Hungarian in several ways, and thus a much more nuanced picture could be obtained during the census. The censuses in the Carpathian Basin in 2021-22 will determine the direction of national policy for the next period, he added.
The State Secretary emphasized: since 2010, the Hungarian government has been striving for national unification in all areas of life, and what they do is permeated by thinking about the nation.
He explained that declining demographic data can be considered a world trend. This has also characterized Hungarianness in the last forty years, and the resulting economic, social and other problems must be solved, he added.
He stated: the goal is to break the 40-year rate of decline and then turn it towards growth.
As he said, the first step is to achieve a change in people's attitudes in order to have more children. This is true - even if to a different extent - for all parts of Hungarians, he noted.
The foundation of the nation is the family, they count on young people and children, it doesn't matter at all what the demographic data show - said János Árpád Potápi.
Zoltán Kántor, director of the Institute for National Policy Research, pointed out: there has not been such a thorough mapping of Hungarians in Slovakia for twenty years, and various researches will be based on this in the future.
Analyst Gábor Harrach warned that the threshold is dangerously close, which even theoretically makes it impossible for Hungarians to enter the Slovak parliament. In the case of the Hungarians in the highlands, the decrease can be largely attributed to assimilation, in addition to natural weight loss and emigration, he said, adding:
it is expected that Hungarians will not be the most populous minority in Slovakia within a short period of time.
MTI
Cover image: Illustration / felvidek.ma
