Hungary starts granting citizenship according to new law this week

This week those interested in Hungarian citizenship will start taking the oath under a new law, effective since January, that makes it possible to request Hungarian citizenship through a simplified proceedings on the basis of Hungarian ethnic origin and knowledge of the Hungarian language. The newspaper SME quotes Hungarian Vice-Premier Zsolt Semjén as saying proceedings may start today. Disputes over the law have raised tensions between Bratislava and Budapest.

Last Friday, Semjén told the Forum of Hungarian Representatives of the Carpathian Basin, which brings together Hungarian minority representatives living in countries adjacent to Hungary, that Budapest would not give any information about individuals granted Hungarian citizenship to Slovakia or any other country. He also said that the process of granting citizenship to Hungarians living abroad was unfolding without any problems and that the Hungarian authorities were receiving 800 requests a day.

Slovakia, which has a Hungarian minority of half a million people in a country of more than five million, passed a retaliatory law last year stating that, a few exceptional circumstances aside, Slovak citizens who are granted citizenship of another state will be stripped of their Slovak citizenship. The new government of Slovak Premier Iveta Radičová then decided to amend the controversial regulation.

For most Hungarians living abroad, acquiring Hungarian citizenship will be of only symbolic value, because they will not be able to vote in Hungary without being permanent residents there. Media reports indicate that the largest number of applicants are expected to come from the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, as residents there would benefit from easier travel to EU countries with a Hungarian passport.

Hungary has a population of 10 million, but it is estimated that about five million ethnic Hungarians live abroad. Most of them reside in the western and central parts of Romania, the south of Slovakia, and Vojvodina province.

According to a previous statement by the Ministerial Rapporteur for Citizenship Issues, Tamás Wetzel, the Hungarian government expects between 250 000 and 400 000 ethnic Hungarians to request citizenship during the first year of the new law. It is not clear whether that estimate is realistic.