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Rudolf Schuster, former president of Slovakia, will be awarded the Medal for Human Dignity by the Council for Human Dignity on Wednesday, Magyar Nemzet reports. The award recognizes the politician’s efforts on behalf of Hungarians in Slovakia and Hungarian-Slovak relations.
Rudolf Schuster, the former Slovak president, will be awarded the Human Dignity Medal of the Human Dignity Council by the organization’s president, Zoltán Lomnici, Sr., and secretary general, Miklós Szunai, during a ceremony at the Hungarian Consulate General in Košice (Kassa) on Wednesday. The former head of state is honored by Géza Erdélyi, retired Reformed bishop and vice president of the Council for Human Dignity.
Rudolf Schuster was head of state of Slovakia from 1999 to 2004. Before that, he was mayor of his hometown of Košice from 1983 to 1986, and Czechoslovakia’s ambassador to Canada from 1990 to 1992.
Slovakia quickly came under the scrutiny of the Council for Human Dignity, established in 2010, in connection with the citizenship law, Zoltán Lomnici, Sr. told Magyar Nemzet.
Slovak lawmakers passed a law in 2010, that automatically revokes Slovak citizenship from anyone who takes on another citizenship, the former chief justice recalled. The law still does not provide a legal remedy for those affected, despite the European Court of Justice ruling in March 2019, which is binding on all member states, that the right to a legal remedy must be guaranteed in the event of a legal withdrawal of citizenship, he added.
Lomnici, Sr. recalled that the Beneš Decrees, which established the collective guilt of Germans and Hungarians, are still in force today and were ratified by the Slovak National Council in 2007, so all Hungarians born on Slovak territory are still considered war criminals. When then-Prime Minister Robert Fico justified the citizenship law, he said that the Hungarian minority posed a risk to Slovakia’s national security, Lomnici, Sr. told Magyar Nemzet.
The president of the Council for Human Dignity said that
in this situation it is worth looking for support and pointing to the work of those who defend the Hungarian minority in Slovakia and work for more harmonious Hungarian-Slovak relations.
“Rudolf Schuster, whose family is of Carpathian German origin, but comes from Hungary on his mother’s side, deserves recognition. He was open in his contacts with Hungary, with Hungarian politicians, especially with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and he was a staunch supporter of V4 cooperation. Among Slovak politicians, he was a positive exception. It is also worth mentioning that during his tenure Košice became a twin city of Miskolc,” the former chief justice told the newspaper.
Via magyarnemzet.hu, Ungarn Heute, Contributed image: Facebook/Teleráno