Mezei István: Urban development in Slovakia (Pécs-Somorja, 2010)
6. Towns along the Hungarian and Slovak border
The line of Hungarian and Slovak towns to Dunajská Streda, too. (This wave of moving out has also reached Rajka on the Hungarian side.) A large percentage of the people moving out are of Slovak ethnicity. The Hungarian settlements in Slovakia were not prepared for this process. The borderland villages with a formerly overwhelming Hungarian majority have the impression that this Slovakization is a kind of ethnic loss of ground. The settlements on the Slovak side have also made efforts to preserve their ethnic consciousness, but, unlike the Hídverő (Bridge Builder) settlements (see below), the Hungarian settlements do not help their activities sufficiently. After the enactment of the municipality act, they established a regional organization called the Alliance of Žitný ostrov Towns and Villages. To increase national consciousness and lobby power, they intentionally lengthened the list of the organized settlements so that the representation of the Hungarian interests should be ensured properly. An equivalent Hungarian small regional organization is the Alliance of Szigetköz Local Governments. However, there are no continuous relations between the two organizations and is not as prosperous as in the case of the Hídverő settlements. • The other large centre, which follows Bratislava closely in every aspect, is Košice with a population of 240,000 people. This city started to establish its international relations relatively early and in an inventive way, and therefore they have developed the airport strongly. A business park of information technology is being built, where also the young and well-trained graduates of Miskolc University are welcome as employees. There are plans to lengthen the tram-line from the iron works in Košice to Moldava nad Bodvou (about 40 km) so that commuting should be made easier for people working there. The motorway to Uzshorod is going to connect the city with Ukraine, so not only the ore needed for iron production, but also other products will be transported in larger quantities to Košice. Košice exerts a gravitation effect on Prešov, a town with a population of 70,000 people, 20 km to the north, whose economic power is increasing significantly. Thus, the long zone of towns from Bratislava to the north is getting larger in the east, too, and meets the line of towns from the direction of Košice-Prešov at Poprad. • Along the Danube, between Győr and Esztergom, Hungarian towns have their own gravitation areas. Commuting daily or weekly, a high number of people go to work in the companies of these towns, where enterprises moving from across the Danube are also based. This divi-149
