* Law eases access to citizenship for ethnic Hungarians
* Over 2 mln ethnic Hungarians live elsewhere in Europe
* Slovakia retaliates with countermeasures
* Seekers of dual citizenship will lose Slovak one
(Adds Slovak reaction, Czech president's comment)
By Gergely Szakacs and Martin Santa
BUDAPEST/BRATISLAVA, May 26 (Reuters) - Hungary approved a
law on Wednesday easing access to its citizenship for over two
million ethnic Hungarians living elsewhere in central Europe,
triggering legal retaliation by neighbouring Slovakia.
Parliament passed an amendment allowing ethnic Hungarians to
apply for citizenship from 2011 without needing to stay in the
country, if they have Hungarian ancestry and speak the language.
The legislation, which does not automatically give voting
rights in Hungary, passed by an overwhelming majority. It
received long applause in Hungary's parliament, elected last
month in polls which the centre-right Fidesz party won.
Slovakia, which considers Hungary's measure a security
threat, reacted by adopting an amended law on Wednesday which is
designed to strip its citizens of their Slovak nationality if
they take a second citizenship.
"Slovakia is a sovereign country and we cannot tolerate
Fidesz's policy of a 'Great Hungary', we cannot tolerate
ignorance of rules of the international law," Prime Minister
Robert Fico told reporters after the parliamentary vote.
Ethnic Hungarians live in several neighbouring countries
including Slovakia, Serbia, Ukraine and Romania. Their ancestors
lost their Hungarian citizenship under the Trianon peace treaty
ending World War One.
The Slovak act, backed by coalition parties and the
opposition Christian Democrats, will also ban people with
foreign citizenship from working in certain public positions
requiring Slovak citizenship, such as members of parliament.
Fico said the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) had no objection to the amended Slovak code.
The law, which needs to be signed by the Slovak president,
will come into force on July 17. Czech President Vaclav Klaus
expressed solidarity with Slovakia on Wednesday, adding that he
was also concerned by Hungary's actions.
Budapest and Bratislava have repeatedly sparred over
Slovakia's treatment of its half-million-strong Hungarian
community, most recently over a new language law which Hungary
says hurts minority rights. []
Hungary's citizenship bill is an old pledge of Fidesz, which
will form the new government on Saturday, while in Slovakia it
has become an issue in campaigning for elections on June 12.
"The Slovak reaction's toughness may not be proportionate to
the Hungarian measure," said Peter Kreko, analyst at Political
Capital in Budapest.
"The two states' relations will hinge on the composition of
the next Slovak government... which might even need Hungarian
parties as part of the coalition," he said.
Fico's leftist SMER is a favourite to form a new government
after the June vote. At the moment the nationalist party SNS is
also part of the Slovak coalition.
The new Hungarian rules won support on the streets of the
capital. "I would give Hungarian citizenship to all Hungarians,
as they are of our blood, they have also suffered for Trianon
and they deserve to be accepted as Hungarian citizens," said
57-year-old Iren Menik in Budapest.
(Reporting by Gergely Szakacs/Sandor Peto and Martin Santa in
Bratislava, Additional reporting by Robert Muller in Prague;
Editing by David Stamp)
