Representatives of ethnic communities of Croats, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Slovenes and Serbs formulated their requests in an eight-item petition which they presented to Parliament Speaker Katalin Szili.
The head of the Croat self-government in Hungary, Mijo Karagic, said self-governments of ethnic minorities in Hungary had not been engaged in the organisation of the rally which had been initiated by cultural societies of Hungarian Slovaks.
Karagic said that these demands should be supported in principle as they were aimed at improving the working and living conditions of ethnic minorities.
The petition asks for enabling minorities to have their deputies in the Hungarian national parliament. One of the demands is to ensure funds for minorities' programmes in the electronic media as well as publishing weeklies in minorities' languages.
Minorities ask for a radio channel at the state level, financial assistance for holding religious rites in languages of minorities as well as funds to be ensured for textbooks in schools for minorities.