Slovak and Hungarian Leaders Agree to Form Working Group on Beneš Decrees

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's ally Peter Magyar have agreed to establish a working group to address the Beneš decrees, a long-standing and sensitive historical issue between Slovakia and Hungary. The two sides also agreed to hold bilateral meetings on the matter. The Beneš decrees were a series of laws issued by Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš after World War II that resulted in the expulsion of ethnic Germans and Hungarians from Czechoslovakia and the confiscation of their property. The decrees remain a point of contention between Slovakia and Hungary, with Budapest periodically demanding their annulment or revision, while Slovak governments have consistently defended them as a settled matter of post-war history and law. The agreement to form a working group signals a diplomatic effort to manage the dispute through structured dialogue rather than public confrontation. The move could have broader implications for Slovak-Hungarian relations, which have been complicated by competing nationalist narratives and the presence of a significant ethnic Hungarian minority in southern Slovakia.