page_title: Hungary–Slovakia relations
section_title: Slovak language law
hierarchical_section_title: Hungary–Slovakia relations / Language laws / Slovak language law
caption_attribution_description: English: Region with a Hungarian-speaking majority in Slovakia.
context_page_description: Hungary and Slovakia are two neighboring countries in Central Europe. There are two major periods of official foreign relations between them in contemporary history. The first period included relations between the Kingdom of Hungary and the first Slovak Republic in 1939-1945. The second period has started in 1993, when the countries again established diplomatic relations, the year when Slovakia became independent of Czechoslovakia. Hungary has an embassy in Bratislava and a general consulate in Košice, and in Nitra, and Slovakia has an embassy in Budapest and a general consulate in Békéscsaba.
  After the first break-up of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Hungary was the first state which officially recognized the independent Slovakia. Subsequently, Hungary and Slovakia established embassies in Bratislava and Budapest and kept diplomatic relations during World War Two. Despite a formal alliance inside the Berlin pact and a common war against the Anti-Hitler coalition, Slovak-Hungarian political relations maintained on the brink of war due to the frontier dispute and the oppression of Slovak minority in Hungary and Hungarians in Slovakia.
context_section_description: In 2009 the Slovak parliament amended the 1995 language law, mandating preferential use of the state language – Slovak. Use of a non-state language in state institutions (local government, hospital, police) by citizens interacting with it could carry a financial penalty. The law does not interfere with private use of minority languages.
caption: Areas in Slovakia where Hungarian speakers make up at least 20%.
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