The Hungarian minority
With a population of around 540,000, this diaspora minority is the best organized in the country. Politically, the Hungarians of Slovakia are represented by the Magyar Coalition Party (autonomist conservatives) and above all by the Most-Híd party (center-right liberals), which is a member of the coalition in power between 2016 and 2020. Mainly settled in the south, along the Danube, the Hungarians of Slovakia have numerous Hungarian-language nursery, primary and secondary schools, but no university teaching only in Hungarian. The Hungarian language chair at Nitra University offers only 50% of its courses in Hungarian. Young Hungarians in higher education generally move to Hungary and tend to stay there after graduation. As far as the media are concerned, the Slovak national broadcaster RTVS broadcasts 35 hours a week in Hungarian, and there are numerous Hungarian-language radio stations, TV channels and some fifteen newspapers.
Strained political relations
History has had a lasting impact on the destiny of the Slovaks, who were dominated by the Hungarians for nine hundred years. The 1920 Treaty of Trianon formalized the break-up of Austria-Hungary at the end of the First World War. The map was redrawn and Czechoslovakia was born, reclaiming certain territories with a Hungarian majority, notably north of the Danube. In these mixed areas, cohabitation went smoothly. Komarno and Štúrovo, for example, saw a record number of mixed marriages in towns where all inhabitants spoke two languages, without any tension. It's at the diplomatic level that relations are more complicated. Politicians use the issue as a tool, and like a ping-pong match, the populist leaders of the two countries take turns inveighing against each other, playing on this nationalist chord. Each has its own media outburst to defend its side, drawing on certain unhealed historical wounds from the past that have led to a certain polarization.
The Czechs
This minority represents 0.8% of the Slovak population. Perfectly integrated, the Czechs share a common language and cultural background with their Slovakian sister. Close ties unite the two nations, and traditionally, the newly-elected Slovak president pays his first official visit to his Czech counterpart. Many Slovak students study at Czech universities in Brno or Prague, and many Slovaks have family on the other side of the border. Indeed, during the "Velvet Divorce", it was possible to choose between Czech and Slovak nationality. All Slovaks understand Czech, thanks in particular to television, which offers many films in the Czech language, mainly to save money. Although there is a historical rivalry, particularly in sport, with a slight inferiority complex on the Slovak side, the two peoples enjoy a special relationship.
The Ruthenes
This little-known minority represents just 0.4% of the total Slovak population, with around 33,000 declared members. This well-defined people, referred to as the Subcarpathian Ukraine, is today found largely in western Ukraine around Lviv, and to a lesser extent in eastern Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and northern Romania. The history of this nation is similar to that of Slovakia, except that it never succeeded in founding its own state. Like Slovakia, Ruthenia was under Hungarian influence from the 14th century until 1918, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell. The Ruthenians then asked to be integrated into Czechoslovakia, while at the same time demanding a degree of autonomy. The 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye confirmed this wish. The first Czechoslovak Republic, a parliamentary democracy, was divided into four zones - Bohemia, Moravia-Silesia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia - each with its own cultural autonomy, including administrative languages. The outbreak of the Second World War marked a turning point: Czechoslovakia was dismembered and Ruthenia declared its independence for... just four days, before the arrival of the Nazi armies, which attached it once again to Horthy's Hungary, Hitler's ally. Ruthenians then took part in the liberation of the country as part of the Czechoslovak army, notably at the Dukla Pass near Svidník. After the war, the USSR redrew its borders and took over the eastern part of Slovakia, including Uzhhorod (now in Ukraine), the regional capital of Ruthenia, in order to have a direct border with Hungary. Ruthenia's territorial unity was shattered, and its nation gradually fell into oblivion. Yet this community, which still numbers some 700,000, has preserved its ancestral culture. Ruthenian means "Little Russians". Until the 19th century, this term referred to the inhabitants of Rus, the territory of the Prince of Kiev in the Middle Ages. Ruthenes were originally called Rusenes or Russians, a name used to designate all Ukrainians. Today, the majority of Ruthenians live in western Ukraine and speak a language very close to Ukrainian. They use the Cyrillic alphabet, but are Greek-Catholic (Uniate), unlike Ukrainians, who are mostly Orthodox. This official, perfectly integrated minority can be found on Slovakia's eastern borders with Poland and Ukraine. It continues to publish two newspapers in its own language, while national television and radio broadcast in Ruthenian.
