The violence that shook Tehelný poła 30 years ago: Painful memories, a political scientist evaluates Slovak-Hungarian relations – Topky.sk

archival video Perhaps only the older and die-hard fans of Slovak football remember the unpleasant event that shook the sports culture in Slovakia almost thirty years ago. Although it is questionable whether we can still talk about “Slovak sports culture” in 1992, since our nation was still only 4 months before the formal division, it was already clear to everyone that the division would happen. Perhaps this was also the coal that ignited the fire of not very positive Slovak-Hungarian relations. Photo gallery (7) Source: TASR/Pavel Neubauer The situation was even so tense in the audience that the police had to make individual players human shields and corridors and cover them from the impacts of various dangerous objects. That was the only way they could get to the lawn. Exceptions were not sharp things made of glass or stones. Chaos in which it was forgotten that something was also happening on the pitch. And the match between Slovan Bratislava and the football club Ferencváros was a kind of first sign that things between these nations will not be exactly positive in the coming years. It was on September 16, 1992 that the Tehelné pole, where the first of the two matches between the two clubs took place, was shaken by a wave of great violence in the stands, where Slovak puppeteers from the anti-terrorist unit even had to participate. Even before the match, the whole stadium was tense and there was anger and tension in the air, which, however, stemmed primarily from the “hooligan” clubs of both sides. The aforementioned match was a winner for Slovan, who beat Ferencváros 4:1, but the result of the match was not much looked at that evening. Rather, it was about the mutual rampage of two extremist camps, while, according to some witnesses, even innocent spectators, regardless of nationality, received blows to the head and blows with batons from the police. Photo gallery (7) Source: TASR/Pavel Neubauer They attribute the tension to political aggravation. In fact, in the summer of 1992, the Slovak National Council (SNR) adopted the Declaration on the Sovereignty of Slovakia, from where it all began to accumulate like a snowball. This was followed by the well-known August negotiations between Václav Klaus and Vladimír Mečiar in the Tugendhat villa in Brno, where the schedule for the dissolution of the federation was drawn up and the date of the division of the republic was also announced for the first time, which fell on January 1, 1993. Photo gallery (7) Source: TASR/Peter Brenkus At the time Slovak-Hungarian relations were not benefited by the well-known skirmish over the Gabčíkovo waterworks, language rights or the status of the Hungarian minority. All of this was symbolically shown in the flamboyant anger in the aforementioned match and also a few hours after it, which some even described as a “festival of primitive nationalism”. Crowds of policemen and hoodlums then marched into the mentioned sector C and started “acting”. However, there are various testimonies that even innocent bystanders caught it in the huge chaos. At that time, the government in Slovakia was in the hands of Vladimír Mečiar with his coalition of HZDS and SNS, which, however, was strongly nationalistic at the time. Explanation at UEFA ground and subsequent fines The fact that the then president of Slovan Jaroslav Čaniga had to personally go to UEFA ground to explain what actually happened at Tehelny Poli speaks volumes about the whole incident and its international scope. Penalties for both sides followed, but the result of the match 4:1 did not change anyway. Photo gallery (7) Source: TASR/Pavel Neubauer However, the topic was primarily addressed by the Hungarian media in the mentioned period, rather than ours. The Battle of the Brickyard made headlines. Photo gallery (7) Source: TASR/Pavel Neubauer The teams Slovan Bratislava and Ferencváros will meet already this week on Wednesday in the Groupama Arena as part of the Champions League, and we can hardly imagine that something similar would happen there. It’s a different time and also a different political situation. The political scientist does not think that this was the number one event in the crippling relations with Hungary. He denies that this particular match has anything to say about Slovak-Hungarian relations. “Coincidentally, I have only one memory of this period, when the second, revenge match was already underway in Hungary. It is a photo where I think there was only one Slovak in the stands during this match,” he jokingly commented at the beginning. Photo gallery (7) Political scientist Grigory Mesezhnikov.
Source: TASR/Pavel Neubauer Mesežnikov does not think that in 1992 the relations between the two countries would be as bad as it happened after 1993, for example, to the extent that it became apparent only at the aforementioned match. “The year 1992 was decisive in terms of the sustainability of the common state. That was the problem and also what will be the future fate of this common state,” the expert thinks. According to him, Slovak-Hungarian relations were more in the domestic context at that time. “Of course, there were also various other complicating factors between Czechoslovakia and Hungary. It was mainly the well-known case of Gabčíkovo – Nagymaros, where it sparked. It was also about the position of the Hungarian national minority in Slovakia, but it was not yet de facto Slovakia-Hungary interstate relations ,” reminds Mesežnikov, saying that the disintegration of this state took place, even by the standards of the time, very quickly, but at the same time peacefully. Slovak-Hungarian relations only found cracks after 1993. According to him, there were no conflicting relations between the newly emerging Slovakia and Hungary at that time, but he admits that it was not quite peaceful. “Certainly, in Hungary at that time there were, for example, various statements about the fact that the Hungarian government is the government of 15 million Hungarians, etc. But I think that from the point of view of the developments that came after 1993, the events of 1992 and the mutual relations at that time cannot be compared very much “, says the political scientist. It also reminds us of subsequent questions and topics already after 1993, which we dealt with as part of the minorities, whether it was dual citizenship, a referendum or a language law. Mesežnikov also reminds that Slovak nationalists of the time also protested against the approved version of the language law. That was the moment that caused the first cracks in Slovak-Hungarian relations. “In the federal period after November 1989, the Slovak nationalists were not yet in the government. They were federally organized political representations and they were still looking for the form of a common state. Mečiar had already invited them (SNS, editor’s note) in the second elections, and subsequently a government was formed that had even the constitutional majority. At that time, the SNS was already led by Ľudovít Černák,” Mesežnikov describes the events in 1992. “In my opinion, it would not be correct to judge this event (riots at Tehelno polí, editor’s note) from 1992 from the perspective of Slovak-Hungarian interstate relations, which only occurred in the future. I think that this matter did not in any way negatively affect our relations, ” concluded Mesežnikov, adding that the entire unrest on Tehelno polje was rather the fault of local extremist groups and their members from both camps.