Anti-Hungarian Sentiment

Anti-Hungarian sentiment (also known as Hungarophobia, Anti-Hungarianism, Magyarophobia or Antimagyarism) is dislike, distrust, discrimination, or xenophobia directed against the Hungarians. It can involve hatred, grievance, distrust, intimidation, fear, and hostility towards the Hungarian people, language and culture.

History

During the existence of the Kingdom of Hungary and Croatia, the Banate of Bosnia was accused of holding the alleged Cathar anti-pope Nicetas. Given that the Kingdom of Hungary and Croatia was under heavy Catholic influence, and Bosnia had a decentralized religious practice, Pope Honorius III would preach about invading Bosnia to pacify Nicetas, whilst Hungary would be able to incorporate Bosnia into its control. Later, in 1235, Hungary, with the justification of Pope Gregory IX would launch the Bosnian Crusade in order to subdue the Banate under its control. However, in 1241, the Mongols invaded Hungary. As a result the Hungarian troops abandoned the crusade and returned to Hungary to bolster their armies against the Mongols. Bosnia would then regaining its previously conquered territory. This conflict would fuel anti-Hungarian sentiment within the state, which even lasted beyond the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia.

During the era of the Habsburg monarchs, the court in Vienna was influenced by Hungarophobia, but the Hungarian landowner nobles also showed signs of Germanophobia. In the 18th century, after the end of Rákóczi's War of Independence, many immigrants came to the underpopulated southern parts of the Kingdom of Hungary: for instance, 800 new German villages were established. The authorities preferred non-Hungarian settlers. The Habsburgs regarded the Hungarians as "politically unreliable", and consequently they were not allowed to settle in the southern territories until the 1740s. The organized resettlement was planned by the Habsburgs. The resettlement policy was characterized as anti-Hungarian, as the Habsburgs feared an uprising of Protestant Hungarians.

Thousands of Hungarians were murdered in Transylvania (now part of Romania) in nine separate incidents during the 1848–1849 massacres in Transylvania, in which Romanians were also massacred in four separate occasions.

Modern

Czechoslovakia

Minorities in Czechoslovakia in 1918 to 1939 enjoyed personal freedoms and were properly recognized by the state. There were three Hungarian and/or Hungarian-centric political parties:
* Hungarian-German Social Democratic Party
* Hungarian National Party
* Provincial Christian-Socialist Party

After World War II, Czechoslovakia became a communist state; during the transition to a communist one-party state, decrees permitting the forced expulsion of German and Hungarian minorities from ethnic enclaves in Czechoslovakia came into effect, and Hungarians were forcibly relocated to Sudetenland, on the borders of Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak government deported more than 44,129 Hungarians from Slovakia to the Sudetenland for forced labor between 1945 and 1948,Anna Fenyvesi
Hungarian language contact outside Hungary: studies on Hungarian as a minority language
John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2005, p. 50 and the Beneš decrees remain legally in effect in the Czech Republic.

Slovakia

In Slovakia, Hungarian and pro-Hungarian political parties are a stable part of the political system. Anti-Hungarian sentiment had been criticized particularly during the third government of Vladimír Mečiar. In the past, so-called "Hungarian card" had been used mainly by the Slovak National Party ( SNS) against the granting of a special status to the Hungarian minority; it argued for the complete assimilation of the Hungarian minority into Slovak society. It considers that Hungarians in Slovakia are actually overprivileged.Hungarian Human Rights Foundation
New Slovak Government Embraces Ultra-Nationalists, Excludes Hungarian Coalition Party After personnel changes in the presidium, SNS abandoned similar rhetoric and formed a common government with pro-Hungarian Most-Híd in 2016.

Anti-Hungarian rhetoric of some far-right organizations in Slovakia is based on historical stereotypes and conflicts in the common history as interpreted from nationalistic positions and recent events. In such interpretations, the arrival of old Hungarian tribes is described as the occupation by barbarian tribes and contributed to the destruction of Great Moravia. Other negative sentiments are related to the period of Magyarization, the policy of interwar Hungary, the collaboration of Hungarian-minority parties with the Hungarian government against Czechoslovakia, the First Vienna Award and the Slovak–Hungarian War. Hungary is accused of still trying to undermine the territorial integrity of Slovakia, and local minority politicians are accused of irredentism. However, anti-Hungarian sentiment is not typical even for all far-right organisations, and the leader of the Slovak Brotherhood emphasized the need for collaboration with Hungarian far-right organisations against materialism and multiculturalism.

Women, Slovak or not, used to be required to affix the Slovak feminine marker ''-ová'' (used for declension of feminine names) at the end of their surname.

One incident of ethnically-motivated violence against Hungarians in Slovakia was at a football match in Dunajská Streda when Hungarian fans were badly beaten by the Slovak police.

The majority and the Hungarian minority describe their coexistence mostly as good. For example, in a public survey in 2015, 85.2% of respondents characterized their coexistence as good (63.6% rather good, 21.6% very good) and only 7.6% as bad (6.3% rather bad, 1.3% very bad).

Romania

In Romania, the Ceaușescu regime gave great focus to the ancient history of Transylvania. National communism in Romania made historical personalities of Hungary (such as John Hunyadi or György Dózsa) go through Romanianization and become more central figures in Romanian history.Lucian Boia
History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness
Central European University Press, 2001, p. 222 Citation:"....Thanks to the trios of Gelu, Glad and Menumorut, and Horea, Cloșca and Crișan, the Transylvanian heroes are actually more numerous than those of Wallachia or Moldavia, illustrating the obsession with Transylvania and the Hungarophobia that became accentuated towards the end of the Ceaușescu era."

The Civic Forum of the Romanians of Covasna, Harghita and Mureș, founded in 2005 with the aim of coordinating the ethnic Romanians at Covasna, Harghita and Mureș counties, has been accused of being anti-Hungarian.

Ukraine

Hungarian speakers first settled in Zakarpattia ( Hungarian: ''Kárpátalja'') in the 800s. The region was part of the Kingdom of Hungary from then till 1918. Before the Holocaust and Soviet deportations, there were approximately 250,000 Hungarian speakers in Zakarpattia, around 27% of the total population.
They constituted majorities or pluralities in several towns and cities, including Mukachevo ( Hungarian: ''Munkács''.) Many of these Hungarian speakers were also Jews. Today, Hungarian speakers are around 15% of the population in Zakarpattia, numbering around 150,000, forming majorities or pluralities along the Hungarian border and in some towns, including Berehove ( Hungarian: ''Beregszász''.)

The European Council, the Venice Commission and the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation have argued the Ukrainian state discriminates against Hungarian speakers. The Hungarian Human Rights Foundation said of new reforms legislated in December, 2023,

'We note with regret that the adopted law still does not allow the use of minority languages at the level of higher administrative units (district, county). At the local settlement level, use of language rights remains subject to the majority decision – meaning that enforcement of language rights will not be implemented in most locales ... The law links linguistic rights to the concept of “traditional” settlement of the minority and sets the minimum level at 10%. Accordingly, in locations where the minority population does not reach this threshold (i.e. those in diaspora) will have no language rights at all, which further accelerates their assimilation. The legislation affects only the linguistic rights of minorities; other minority rights are completely left out. The law still does not provide for the free use of national symbols, nor does it provide the conditions to ensure political representation for minorities. Several clauses of the law are discriminatory or merely declarative, which can lead to arbitrary interpretation. The meaning of several legal terms remains unclear. This raises further questions, primarily relating to the right to native-language education alongside the state language. The law still does not comply with all the recommendations of the Venice Commission; does not ensure the rights guaranteed to minorities in the Constitution and other international documents; and does not restore the full range of previously existing minority rights.'

At the same time, László Zubánics, head of the Hungarian Democratic Alliance of Ukraine, said these reforms 'essentially gave the Hungarian community of Zakarpattia the opportunity to ensure its own existence for another 30 years.'

Ukrainian politician Viktor Baloha and his son Andrij have both made remarks described as Hungarophobic. The former alleged Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán was responsible for his ban from the Schengen Area while Andrij, the mayor of Mukachevo, removed a Turul statue from the city's castle.

Derogatory terms

In English

* Bohunk – combination of "Bohemian" and " Hungarian". An immigrant of Central European origin. A laborer.
* Hunky – derived from " Bohunk"
* Mongol – used by Romanian, Slovakian and Serbian nationalists, as a slur against Hungarians to insult them regarding the connection of the Hun origin of the Hungarian conquerors.

In Romanian

The slurs Bozgor, Bozgoroaică and Bozgori are pseudo-Magyar terms of possible Romanian or Slavic origin describing Hungarians. A view is that it means "homeless" or "stateless". speculated that the word is a combination of the Hungarian slur ''ba(s)zd meg'' ("fuck you") and the Romanian word for ''Hungarian'', namely ''ungur''.

See also

*Edvard Beneš
* Ethnic clashes of Târgu Mureș
*Gheorghe Funar
*Iron Guard
*Ján Slota
*Matica slovenská
*Nicolae Ceaușescu
* Noua Dreaptă
* Romanian Hearth Union
* Romanophobia
* Slovakisation
*Serbianization
*World War I

References

Bibliography

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{{Hungary articles

Hungarian
Foreign relations of Hungary