FM Szijjártó said PM Orbán did the right thing when he endorsed anti-Hungarian candidate George Simion
Hungary’s government was right not to interfere in Romania’s presidential election and to express its readiness to cooperate with the winner in the interest of good neighbourly relations and ethnic Hungarians, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said on Wednesday.
The Hungarian government made the right decision
Asked to comment on critical comments by Béla Markó, a former leader of Romania’s ethnic Hungarian RMDSZ party, Szijjártó told a press conference after an informal meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) in Budapest that Markó’s comments needed to be taken in the context that he “doesn’t sympathise with the Hungarian government”.
“I think we made the right decision when we chose not to interfere in Romania’s presidential election process in any way,” Szijjártó said. “We were right to express our readiness to cooperate with the winner of the election in the interest of good neighbourly relations and ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania and Sekler Land.”
Support for ethnic Hungarians living beyond the borders
“I just want to ask all the highly-regarded experts: should we have said that we’re not prepared to cooperate with Romania in the event of a certain outcome?” the minister said. “Would that have been good for bilateral relations? Would it really be in the interest of a community beyond the border if the motherland and the given country were unwilling and unable to cooperate?”
He said that over the last 15 years the government’s policy for Hungarians beyond the border had clearly demonstrated the government’s views on support for ethnic Hungarians and the nation.
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