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Concept
2009 ban of Hungarian President from Slovakia
Summary
Hungarian president László Sólyom was not allowed to step on Slovak soil on August 21, 2009, as he was about to attend the unveiling of a statue of St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary (1000–1038), in Komárno, Slovakia (Révkomárom), a town near the Hungarian border, where ethnic Hungarians form the majority of the population.
The only official reason given for the denial was that the Hungarian president's visit might have constituted a security risk. Slovak prime minister Robert Fico had claimed that police would be unable to prevent Slovak extremist groups from disturbing the ceremony.
In the two days preceding the visit, Slovakia had raised four other objections to the planned trip:
The ceremony might suggest a claim of Hungarian sovereignty over Slovak soil.
Slovakia was informed late about the visit.
The date of the visit fell one day after the Hungarian national holiday commemorating St. Stephen and coincided with the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Slovak leaders were not invited, nor did the president have plans to meet with them.
Declaring the Hungarian head of state an unwelcome person (essentially persona non grata, although this term was not used) created additional diplomatic conflict in already tense Hungary–Slovakia relations.
László Sólyom was invited by a civic association, Szent István Szobor Bizottság ("St. Stephen Statue Committee"), to a statue unveiling ceremony in Komárno, Slovakia (Révkomárom).
Both the Catholic and the Orthodox churches regard King Stephen as a saint for his role in converting the peoples of his kingdom to Christianity. Pope Gregory VII canonized him, his son and a bishop; August 20, 1083, the day of the canonization, is a public holiday in Hungary, regarded as the foundation of Hungarian statehood. In his Admonitions to his son, he declared, as cited in the planned speech of Sólyom for the unveiling:
The Komárno statue was due to be unveiled on the day after this anniversary, that is, on August 21, 2009.
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