Hungary expects more respect from Croatian politicians spreading fake news, says ministry
An official of the foreign ministry said Hungary expected more respect from Croatian politicians who had voiced baseless criticism and spread fake news about Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in recent days.
Tamáés Menczer, state secretary for communication and Hungary’s international image, said on the ministry’s Facebook page that Hungary had made a major contribution to the success of the Croatian economy, with 644,000 Hungarians spending 3.2 million guest nights there last year, Hungarian oil and gas company MOL “involved in the largest investment in Croatia” and the Hungarian Electricity Works MVM “about to buy 6.75 billion cubic metres of gas from the LNG terminal on Krk Island”.
“Considering the above, we expect more respect from Croatian politicians voicing baseless criticism and spreading fake news about Hungary,” he added.
Menczer said their behaviour was “especially difficult to understand at a time when consultations are under way about opening borders, an extremely important move for the Croatian tourism season”.
Orbán recently posted a video on Facebook showing a plaque on the newly inaugurated Trianon memorial in Sátoraljaújhely with the words “Fiume [Rijeka] – To the sea, Hungarians!”.
Some Croatian press reports have mistranslated it as “the Hungarian sea” and called the sign a provocation.
The Croatian foreign ministry said it expected an explanation from the Hungarian embassy in Zagreb.
Read alsoTrianon 100 – Orbán: Hungary winning again
Source: MTI
Present-day Rijeka / Fiume and its coastal region have got nothing of Hungarian whatsoever, save for some tourists during the summer months. During its three thousand and more years of history, Dalmatia spoke many languages: Illyrian, Greek, Latin, Slavic, Venetian, Dalmatian, Italian and others. Hungarian was not one of them, given some sporadic exceptions of course. Even during the few decades of the dual monarchy, Hu presence in Rijeka was small, mostly civil servants and their families. If he wants to be taken serious by his Croatian neighbours, Orbán should once and forever give up the fairy-tale represented by that outdated globe in his office.
Croats are right to protest: how would Hungarians react if Erdogan referred to a map of the Ottoman Empire where Buda and other Hungarian regions appear as Turkish?
P.s. I am well aware of the fact that Rijeka does not belong to Dalmatia. I used the word Dalmatia just to simplify, since some foreigners may not know the name Kvarner and nowadays many people tend to refer to the whole of Croatian coastal region south-east of Istria simply as Dalmatia.
The world should consider itself lucky to have the greatest moral philosopher since Socrates being willing to share his thoughts about the vexatious problem of Fiume.