2009 ban of Hungarian President from Slovakia

In the two days preceding the visit, Slovakia had raised four other objections to the planned trip: 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.

In his Admonitions to his son, he declared, as cited in the planned speech of Sólyom for the unveiling: [A] kingdom with only one language and having only one custom is weak and frail.

Being a Warsaw Pact state, the People's Republic of Hungary also sent troops into Slovakia; Poland and Bulgaria also took part in the Soviet putsch.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico compared László Sólyom to the soldiers invading Czechoslovakia: "In 1968 Hungarian tanks were coming to Slovakia.

"[6] Hungarian prime minister Bajnai telephoned his Slovak counterpart on the phone to reassure him that the visit was unconnected with the 1968 events and reminding him that in 2008, the 40th anniversary of the Prague Spring, Sólyom had made a speech officially expressing his regret at the 1968 invasion.

[7] "I feel necessary - as the head of state of the free and democratic Republic of Hungary - to express my deep regret for the peoples of then-Czechoslovakia, that the Hungarian troops took part in the oppression in 1968.

"On June 19, 2009, Sólyom had notified Peter Weiss, Slovakia's ambassador to Hungary, of the planned visit, regarded as the "highest level of official notification" in diplomacy.

[11] Foreign Minister of Hungary, Péter Balázs retorted that the named date, August 13, was the start of the technical preparations and not the notification, which had happened on June 19.

[12] Neither Gašparovič nor Fico distanced themselves from government party leader Ján Slota for his earlier comments disparaging Saint Stephen, the king portrayed by the Komárno statue, as a "clown on a horse".

Ivan Gašparovič, President of the Slovak Republic called the visit an "inconsiderate decision", stating to the press that he is not surprised because he knows Sólyom "likes to prowl around" in the countries that are in the area of the pre-1920 Kingdom of Hungary.

On August 20, Miroslav Lajčák, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia officially informed Antal Heizer, ambassador of Hungary in Bratislava that László Sólyom is not recommended to cross the border on the next day.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced in the afternoon, hours before the unveiling that Sólyom will be not allowed to enter the territory of Slovakia.

[21] Péter Balázs Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs - cutting his vacation short - called in the Slovak ambassador Peter Weiss and protested the unprecedented act coming from an EU and NATO member state.

We see it as unprecedented and unacceptable that an EU and NATO member state bars the Head of State of the Republic of Hungary from their territory.The chairman of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the Parliament of Hungary, Zsolt Németh declared:[23] “This is the result of a long process, that raised anti-Hungarianism to a government level in the last three years, the main reason of which is that Prime Minister Robert Fico has put an extremist party into the government.″He also claimed that it is the duty of the international community to find a way of driving Slovakia back to the road of respecting human rights and minority rights.

[24] According to Péter Balázs, the ban was not lawful, because the already given international permissions haven't been withdrawn and so the embassy just got an "unfriendly" document, which would in theory have allowed Sólyom to enter Slovakia.

Can anyone take it seriously that our successors of communism [i.e. the governing coalition]) led by the one [Fico] who didn't notice November 17 [day of the Velvet revolution in 1989], are troubled by the date marking the beginning of "normalization", which jump-started their career?”Most of these media empires are regularly accused of being the sole advocates of the opposition (fueled mostly by the prime minister's attacks on the media).

With all heart, connecting the celebrations of (a foreign, but still holy) King Stephen I with the anniversary of the occupation (of the Warsaw Pact) is a bit far-fetched.[...

]”Another daily, Lidové noviny wrote an article in a similar tone:[32] “If we (i.e. the Czechs) would interpret history the same way as today's rulers of Slovakia, then we'd have to rename Charles Bridge and also Rudolfinum, which bears the name of the successor to the oppressing Austrian throne.[...