Report by Bálint Bardi, correspondent for Hungary – edit by Jet van Fessem

There is a long conflict between two neighboring villages on the two sides of the Austrian-Hungarian border: Ágfalva on the Hungarian side and Schattendorf in Austria.
In the beginning of the 2010’s a very small one lane border crossing route was established between the two villages, everyone was happy as both of the villages are dead ends without a route joining them. And in addition it opened a faster route for many Hungarians who work in Austria and commute every day. The people of Schattendorf were happy with that as most of the manual labor in the village is done by Hungarians, but you can find Hungarian doctors or nurses too.

Shortly after the opening of the new road the Austrians changed their mind as more and more cars passed their once very quiet village. First they introduced a time limit on the border and last year the Austrian side was declared a pedestrian zone. So it’s not possible to cross it by car. That’s when the Hungarian commuters started to develop their two car system. They own two cars, drive one of them to the border every morning, park it on the Hungarian side, walk through the border and jump into their second car parked on the Austrian side to drive to their workplaces.

At the beginning of 2023, the mayor of the Austrian village placed an automated borderpost, for which you need a permit. This is his way to reduce traffic and accidents. It takes a long time to acquire a permit and it costs about 160 euro per year. Metropolis’ correspondent Balint spent a day with Zsuzsa, who works in Austria, because of higher wages. She likes working in Austria and she likes her colleagues, but feels discriminated against because of this border situation.