Hungarian party: Hungary should claim back Transcarpathia from Ukraine

László Toroczkai, the head of the radical Mi Hazánk party, said the party needed to “find partners in our fight againt globalism” at the party’s year-closing event in Budapest on Saturday. Furthermore, he said that provided Ukraine lost its statehood, Hungary should claim back Transcarpathia, a region that had been part of the Kingdom of Hungary until 1944 and where almost 100 thousand Hungarians live even today with more than a million non-Hungarians.

Toroczkai’s words were applauded by Mi Hazánk members and even Western European right-wing politicians, including an MP of the German AfD. Toroczkai highlighted the importance of immediate ceasefire and peace talks, just like the Orbán cabinet keeps repeating. However, he added that, provided the Ukrainian statehood ceased to exist at some point during the Russian invasion, Hungary should claim back Transcarpathia, Ukraine’s Westernmost region near Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.

That comes before Péter Szijjártó meets with his Ukrainian counterpart in Ungvár (Uzshorod, Transcarpathia) next week, which can serve as a pre-negotiation for the summit of the two leaders, PM Orbán and President Zelenskyy in Kyiv. Neither the Ukrainian embassy in Budapest nor the Hungarian Foreign Ministry commented Toroczkai’s thoughts. Mi Hazánk has 6 MPs out of the 199 in the Hungarian Parliament.

Mi Hazánk’s task is to “take over governance in our on country and ultimately in Brussels”. “Once we’ve won, we will have to decide what to do about the European Union,” Toroczkai added.

The EU should be run as a federation of sovereign countries or abolished and cooperation left to bilateral agreements, he said.