The politics of language policy in Slovak-Hungarian relations

Language policies and its official recognition are considered crucial markers of national identities in the region of Central/Eastern Europe. The Slovak Language Law is one of the most remarkable segments of legislation in a democratic European country. Paper will show how restrictive it is and what kind of discrimination it introduces into Central/Eastern Europe – specially in the bilateral relations with its neighbor, Hungary. The research question is related to the place of the “language issue” in contemporary Slovak domestic political discourse and its role in Hungary- Slovakian bilateral relations.