In the recent years the Hungarian civil society in Slovakia has been seeking new alternatives of empowerment. These phenomena are unique not only in the country but in the Central and Eastern European region as well. After the failed ethnic democracy of the Meciar regime, the process of democratic reconstruction started at the end of 1990s was characterized by the important role of Hungarian ethnic political party. After 2004, when the country became the member of the EU, the minorities living in Slovakia expected improvement of minority rights by the membership but those expectations failed. As Slovak populist and nationalist parties got in power again the adequate protection of minorities was, however, not granted. The changed conditions forced the Hungarian community to seek new ways of empowerment that were previously unknown. The foundation of the new multiethnic political party, Híd-Most covering Slovak, Hungarian, and other ethnic groups was one of these.. The 2009 Amendment of the Language Law has triggered the Hungarian civil society actions, and new civil initiations were founded, too. One of these is the Civil Initiation for Bilingual Southern Slovakia that fights for language rights in a different way. The paper aims to analyse these new phenomena that may be considered
as potential alternative ways of empowerment and as new perspectives for minority issues in Slovakia.
