Discrimination concerns

Aiming to defuse escalating tensions between the two countries, the Slovakian and Hungarian foreign ministers met over the weekend in the Slovenian resort town Bled. They emerged vowing to "start over again," and said they planned to use diplomacy to deal with the countries' historically difficult - and increasingly volatile - relations.

Nonetheless, bomb-disposal experts were called to a Slovak cultural institute in Budapest on Monday after a package marked "Caution: bomb!" was found at the door.

A few hours earlier at a separate venue, the Slovak ambassador to Hungary, Peter Weiss, insisted that the controversial new legislation controlling the use of minority languages in public discourse is in line with international norms.

Language law called key to meeting

Police told the Hungarian news agency MTI that the package, also daubed with anti-Slovak comments, proved to be harmless.

Despite the latest threat of violence, Hungary's foreign minister, Peter Balazs, said after a parliamentary committee meeting that the "political will" was there for a meeting between Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai and his Slovak counterpart, Robert Fico.

Balazs cautioned, however, that such a meeting would be pointless unless Slovakia was prepared to discuss the language law.

Despite the insistence of the Slovak government that it seeks only to protect Slovakia's cultural heritage, many Hungarians are concerned that the new legislation will be used to discriminate against the country's half-million-strong Hungarian-speaking minority.

The bomb threat was just the latest in a series of signs of the deteriorating nature of relations between the neighboring EU nations. Earlier in August, petrol bombs were thrown at Slovakia's embassy in Budapest in protest against Bratislava's treatment of ethnic Hungarians.

Uproar over statue unveiling

That attempt followed on the heels of an incident in August where Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom was told through diplomatic channels not to attend the unveiling of a statue of Hungarian national hero King Stephan I in Komarno, a Slovak town where a majority speak Hungarian.

Historically, relations between the two countries have been difficult. Slovakia was part of Hungary until the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1918.

Sentiment has worsened steadily since 2006, when a new coalition government, including the hard-line nationalist Slovak National Party, took office in Slovakia.

Still, observers are hoping the weekend meeting between Balazs and Slovakian Foreign Minsiter Miroslav Lajcak will help turn the tide in this sea of worsening relations. The participants themselves appeared hopeful.

Language law gets green light

"It was certainly a new beginning, a step in the right direction. And I really hope that further steps are taken," Lajcak said.

Nonetheless Slovakia has said it will go ahead with enforcing a language law that Hungarian minority activists are decrying as discriminatory. The law bans the use of all languages other than Slovak in public discourse, and sets out fines of up to 5,000 euros ($7,150) for violations.

The Hungarian Coalition Party, which represents the Hungarian minority in the Slovak parliament, had planned to demonstrate against the language law at a stadium in the Slovak town of Dunajska Streda on Tuesday, Aug. 1.

jen/dpa/AFP

Editor: Chuck Penfold