Anti-Hungarian sentiment
Anti-Hungarian sentiment 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. It can range from negative personal feelings of hatred to institutionalized, violent persecution.
Most of the anti-Hungarian sentiment and incidents still occur today in Hungary's neighboring countries, as their predecessor states received large historical Hungarian territories. Following World War I, the Treaty of Trianon in 1920 led to the separation of 32% of ethnic Hungarians, along with many entirely Hungarian-populated regions, from their historical Hungarian motherland.
History
was a member of the Babenberg dynasty and belonged to the elite of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1146, King Géza II of Hungary, defeated Otto's brother, Henry II Jasomirgott, Duke of Bavaria and Margrave of Austria, at the Battle of the Fischa. Influenced by personal grievances, Otto wrote about Hungary and the Hungarians in 1147: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.
1848–1849 massacres in Transylvania
During Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–1849, thousands of Hungarians were murdered in Transylvania in nine separate incidents during the 1848–1849 massacres in Transylvania.Following several days of massacres of Hungarians in Abrudbánya, Avram Iancu issued the order, "No more killing; those who remain, until now, let them live." But the order did not find unanimous approval, a Romanian lancer even challenged Iancu: "Well, why did you swear us on the mountain that we should not leave even a cat alive, much less a Hungarian soul? – By God, I will kill, and we will kill them all."
Treaty of Trianon
had become prime minister of Hungary as a result of the 1918 Aster Revolution. Mihály Károlyi yielded to President Wilson's demand for pacifism by ordering the unilateral self-disarmament of the Hungarian army. At the time of the collapse, the Hungarian Royal Honvéd army still had more than 1,400,000 soldiers. This happened under the direction of Minister of War Béla Linder on 2 November 1918 On the request of the Austro-Hungarian government, an armistice was granted to Austria-Hungary on 3 November 1918 by the Allies. Disarmament of its army meant that Hungary was to remain without a national defence at a time of particular vulnerability. The unilateral self-disarmament made the occupation of Hungary directly possible for the relatively small armies of Romania, the Franco-Serbian army, and the armed forces of the newly established Czechoslovakia.Austria-Hungary collapsed after World War I, and the subsequent Treaty of Trianon in 1920 established Hungary's current borders, resulting in the loss of 72% of its historical territory, majority of its economy, 58% of its population, and 32% of its ethnic Hungarians. Two-thirds of territory of the Kingdom of Hungary was ceded to Kingdom of Romania, Czechoslovakia, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, First Austrian Republic, Second Polish Republic and Kingdom of Italy.
Often referred to in Hungary as the Dictate of Trianon. The treaty completely deprived the Hungarians of their right to self-determination.
Czechoslovakia and Slovakia
Czechoslovakia (1920–1993)
Minorities in Czechoslovakia in 1918 to 1939 enjoyed personal freedoms and were properly recognized by the state, although they suffered from "indirect" forms of discrimination.After World War II, Czechoslovakia became a communist state; during the transition to a communist one-party state, decrees declaring the legality of the collective punishment of and permitting the forced expulsion of German and Hungarian minorities from ethnic enclaves in Czechoslovakia, as well as stripping them of Czechoslovak citizenship 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, and the Beneš decrees remain legally in effect in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Slovakia (1993–present)
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 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. 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 at the end of their surname.
One incident of ethnically motivated violence against Hungarians in Slovakia is the Hedvig Malina case. A 23-year-old Hungarian student girl Malina from Horné Mýto claimed she was severely beaten and robbed on 25 August 2006 in Nitra after speaking Hungarian in public. She claimed her attackers wrote "SK without parasites", and "Hungarians to the other side of the Danube" on her clothes. The Slovak authorities charged Malina with perjury, the police initiated criminal prosecution against Malina, who, in turn, brought the case to the Constitutional Court. In August 2007, a former high-ranking police officer, Jozef Šátek, filed a complaint against Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, Kaliňák and Packa, claiming that they had abused their power in connection with the Malina case. In October 2007, Tom Lantos, Hungarian-born Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, asked Prime Minister Fico to distance themselves from the Beneš decrees, for a reasonable process in the Malina case, and to treat members of the Hungarian minority as equals. Lantos also blamed Fico for creating the climate for anti-Hungarian sentiments by including "voluntarily in his coalition individuals with known ultra-nationalist, anti-Hungarian attitudes". Malina then took her case to the European Court of Human Rights, challenging what she calls the "inhuman and humiliating" conduct of the Slovak officials. On 8 November 2011 the European Court of Human Rights approved the Slovak government's apology. The Slovak Government expressed its regret, saying that "some elements of Malina's case raised doubts over whether her rights stipulated by the European Convention of Human Rights may have been violated."
A football match in Dunajská Streda also caused tensions between Slovakia and Hungary 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 and only 7.6% as bad.
In 2025, a 20-year-old Hungarian man was stabbed in Bratislava because he was speaking Hungarian. While waiting in line for food, a Slovak man approached a group of Hungarians who were chatting and asked why they were speaking Hungarian, they replied "because we are Hungarians". The aggressive Slovak individual told them to go to the other side of the Danube to eat if they speak Hungarian, a sentiment commonly expressed by extremist groups. The local Hungarian party has described the incident as a hate crime. Hungarian students organised a protest after the attack.