Slovakia and Hungary: history rules

And now, in 2007 the ghosts of history come back on both sides. The Hungarians are calling for removing the Beneš decrees from the Slovak legal order which allowed for confiscation of property belonging to Hungarians and Germans living in then Czechoslovakia. The Slovak parliament adopted a declaration saying that the decrees are eternal... Both sides are their arguments. Property rights are human rights and should not be violated, say Hungarians.

History is history, the decrees were result of the WWII and there is no reason to revoke them, say Slovaks. If the argument goes like that, why on Earth do politicians play with those ghosts of history? None of the governments or politicians can obtain what they ask for; they can only achieve more tensions between those nations. I think this is when the truth about the European integration appears. No, the Eurobureacrats should not speak up in this conflict.

The beauty of the EU is that the Slovak and Hungarian politicians, even if they detest each other and contribute to a very serious political crisis, cannot create more than this indeed: a political crisis with or without legal solutions. The virtue of "peace" should not be taken for granted. After all genocides take place quite often those days. This is not to say that there could some kind of genocide in Slovakia or Hungary - absolutely not! But remember this: conflicts, once gone military, are never easily controllable anymore. They have their own dynamics. Glad this conflict has no chances turning military. (see map at blogger’s site)