Another gesture to Putin? Ethnic Russians can become national minority in Hungary

As we already reported, Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán is continuously strengthening and tightening Russian-Hungarian relationships. Thus, on a 2017 conference foreign presenters stated that Hungary is seen as a pro-Putin state from Washington. According to zoom.hu, the National Election Commission (NVB) gave a green light for the application of ethnic Russians for national minority status.

PM Orbán is the Trojan horse of president Putin?

To start with, Putin visited Hungary two times only last year. Furthermore, Rosatom will build the two new blocks to the Paks nuclear power plant. Besides, the Hungarian government

classified the contract concerning the expansion immediately.

Janusz Bugajsky, a senior fellow at the Centre for European Policy Analysis, said at a conference in the previous year that Hungary cooperates (with Russia) not only economically, like the Germans, but also politically. In fact, the latter is entirely unacceptable for Washington.

‘If you are seen as being pro-Putin, it can open zero doors’

– added Mike Gonzales, senior fellow of Heritage Foundation.

A gesture to Putin?

The National Election Commission of Hungary (NEC) verified a citizen initiative which would

enable Russians to gain the national minority status in Hungary.

At present, there are 13 recognised national minorities in Hungary. These are the Bulgarians, Greeks, Croats, Poles, Germans, Armenians, Roma, Romanians, Rusyns, Serbians, Slovaks, Slovenians and Ukrainians.

According to the law, if an ethnic group would like to become a national minority, they have to collect at least 1,000 signatures from those who have the right to vote on the election of mayors and local councillors.

Firstly, citizens have to apply to the NVB which evaluates it from formal aspects. In case of Russians living in Hungary, NEC

accepted unanimously the application and allowed the collection of signatures last Friday.

András Patyi, president of NVB, highlighted that it is not for them to decide whether an ethnic group meets the legal requirements or not. Their task is to decide whether an application is not prohibited or whether it is unambiguous.

Read our article about

MINORITIES IN HUNGARY #1 – CROATIANS
MINORITIES IN HUNGARY #2 – GREEKS
MINORITIES IN HUNGARY #3 – GERMANS
MINORITIES IN HUNGARY #4 – BULGARIANS

The next step is to collect at least 1,000 signatures supporting the initiative in 120 days. Their validity is checked by the National Election Office (NVI). Besides, they have to seek the opinion of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) about the ethnic group.

Finally, if there are enough signatures and MTA gives green light the parliament decides whether Russians can become a national minority in Hungary. If so, they would receive additional rights, for example,

they can send a nationality advocate to the Parliament.

Photo: MTI/EPA/Makszim Semetov

Source: zoom.hu, Daily News Hungary