Talk:Ján Figeľ

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Untitled[edit]

The title of this article is incorrect because of technical limitations. The correct title is "Ján Figeľ".

The ľ is not an l followed by an apostrophe but a single character. The software can't cope with having that in the title so I have used "l apostrophe" as the nearest approximation. I'm keeping the wrong title template off the article page because it would look silly when the title appears to be correct. "Ján Figel" and "Jan Figel" also redirect to the article if anyone needs a less messy URL. — Trilobite (Talk) 17:35, 2 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Since the software upgrade, this no longer applies. — Trilobite (Talk) 14:25, 27 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The following discussion was copied here from User talk:Juro.

Hello. I'm interested to know why you moved the article to Jan Figel, without diacritics. The software can't cope with the ľ character, but it can cope with normal acute accents above letters like "a" and "i". I chose to put the article at Ján Figel', with an apostrophe after the "l", as the nearest approximation. You'll see I made a note of this on the talk page but I notice you didn't respond. It seems also that there's supposed to be an accent above the "i" as well, but when you added this in I wonder why you didn't just move the article to Ján Fígel' (accent on the "a" and the "i", apostrophe after the "l")? — Trilobite (Talk) 16:38, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)

The answer is very simple: (1) since there are many various accents in Slovak and other languages, as a rule, we write the word without any accents, so that authors of other articles that include e.g. the word Fígeľ as a link do not have to guess how this word might have been written by the original author of the original article...that`s the only logical procedure, otherwise there would be quarrels with each new Slovak, Hungarian, Czech etc. article (2) there is no apostrophe behind the l (rather , ľ is one special character), so the original version was wrong in the first place...Juro 02:51, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Juro, I believe Ján Figeľ does not have accent on "i". See for example his commissioner website [1] or any Slovak newspaper articles. Brona 02:47, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I think that's a frequent error, because I have checked that for the German wikipedia months ago on Slovak pages and always found a long i...Figeľ would sound rather weird phonetically either...But if you are persuaded that it's a short i, change it...Juro 02:51, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

In a quick google search I have not seen any Fígeľs, but Figeľ is used on his website (see above), in his CV at KDH website [2], Radio Slovakia international [3], etc. Probably the short "i" comes from Vranov dialect. Some I will change it.... Brona 03:17, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

OK, then, I do not know any more where I have looked up it last time...Sorry for the additional workJuro 03:46, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

When I created it I was confused about whether there should be an accent on the "i", especially because the German Wikipedia had it, but after looking around the internet I decided it probably shouldn't be there. As for the ľ character, perhaps I didn't make myself clear in my message. I know it's a single character, but I put the article at l apostrophe because to the casual reader it looks the same. You'll notice that in the text of the article itself I used the proper character throughout. It's only article titles that the software won't allow to have certain characters in. Also, I wonder if you could point me to some piece of Wikipedia policy where it says that articles should be located at names with no accents whatsoever. It seems to me that it's best to put the article at the nearest approximation possible, and then make redirects to it from all possible alternatives people might use, including most importantly the version with no accents. I made plenty of redirects, including with combinations involving the accent above the "i" in case typed this in thinking that's how it was spelt. When the article was moved, all these were broken. Because of the redirects, authors of other articles who want to link to this one don't need to worry about which accents are included; readers will be redirected to something that looks completely correct, even if strictly speaking the software doesn't allow us to get the ľ quite perfect (maybe one day that problem will be sorted). — Trilobite (Talk) 12:05, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Pre 90s activity[edit]

There's nothing about his political activity before 1990? Was he a member of the Communist Party? Deyanov

No, Ján Figeľ was never in Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. From 1978 till 1983 he worked in Technical University of Košice and from 83 till 92 in Branch establishment of industry automatization in Prešov. --EllsworthSK (talk) 15:56, 28 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It is correct that JF was not a member of the Communist Party but he was a very active member of the Youth Branch of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, he was Faculty Chairman of the Socialist Youth Union [Socialisticky Zväz Mládeže, SZM, in SK] a youth Marxist–Leninist organization of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. SZM was a kind of preparation for Communist Party membership; but to enter the Communist Party, a candidate had to have two Party members recommendations and a certain professional experience. With regards to JF age and then 1989 events, he simply could’t have time to join the Party. By the way, JF attended in 1989 a professional traineeship in Eastern Germany and such an opportunity to travel and work abroad, was strictly monitored by both Communist Party as well as security apparatus. His traineeship in Eastern Germany is a clear signal that he was a solid element of Socialist society and for sure not a dissident or a critic of the regime. As a reminder, in 1989 some dissidents such as first chairman of KDH Ján Čarnogursky were in prison. Furthermore, when JF was Faculty Chairman of youth branch of the Communist Party, children of dissidents were not even allowed to study at a university. JanRyanPugno (talk) 20:30, 14 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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Anti immigration campaign – incorrect source[edit]

As of 2019-05-22, the article states: "Furthermore, Figeľ created a controversy with an electoral campaign focusing on anti immigration and nationalist rhetoric with a slogan about “white Slovakia”."

The claimed source is: https://www.enca.com/world/slovak-anti-immigrant-premier-set-third-term

But there is nothing in the article that would substantiate the aforementioned claim. I am from Slovakia, I am interested in politics and I never heard Figeľ talk about white Slovakia. I thus think this is a mistake and suggest removing the sentence. It is unsourced and probably factually incorrect.

Reply to above mentioned remarks: The electoral slogan and campaign for a “white Slovakia” emerged already during the campaign 2012 and again in 2016. He was then chairman of the Slovak Christian Democratic Party (KDH). There are many quotes in Slovak and international press about this. In 2012, Figel as a chairman of KDH was criticized by Ms Irene Biahariova, a Roma activist from Slovakia and chair of “People against Racism” NGO (Ludia proti rasizmu in SK). Source: https://spravy.pravda.sk/volby/clanok/243791-kdh-laka-ludi-na-biele-slovensko-narazky-na-rasizmus-odmieta/. Quote by Bihariova: “Nechcem krivdiť KDH a už vôbec nie vyznieť tak, že všetko biele nám prekáža. Hádam úroveň tvorcov kampane je taká vysoká, aby domysleli jej následky,“ uviedla pre Pravda.sk. Podľa nej možno chcela strana týmto vyvolať kontroverziu, „veď aj negatívna reklama je reklama“. V každom prípade však Bihariová očakávala podobné heslo skôr od SNS či ĽSNS. EN Translation: I do not want to harm the KDH and not be understood in the sense that everything white hinders us [eg. Roma or “not white” population of Slovakia]. I hope the education level of this political campaign's creators is high enough to think of its consequences, Bihariova told Pravda.sk. According to Bihariova, the KDH party might want to provoke a controversy, "even negative advertising is advertising." However, Bihariova expected a similar electoral slogan [about white Slovakia] from the SNS [Slovak National Party, extreme right] or the LSNS [People’s Party Our Slovakia, extreme right]. — Preceding unsigned comment added by JanRyanPugno (talk • contribs) 20:20, 14 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]