Orbán-government outraged: Hungarian national symbols removed in Ukraine

Hungary expects Ukrainian leaders to make every effort to stop the attacks and atrocities suffered by ethnic Hungarians, Tamás Menczer, the foreign ministry state secretary for external relations, said on public radio on Friday.

Unacceptable acts

Menczer reacted to reports that Hungarian flags and signs have been removed in Mukachevo district (Munkács), in western Ukraine, and the director of a local Hungarian school, Istvan Schink, was sacked. Before the war, “the ethnic Hungarian community was being stripped of their rights”, he said, citing measures that restricted the use of their mother tongue and education in Hungarian.

“We always used to take firm action against this, but then the war broke out, and we said that since Ukraine was the attacked side in the war, we put aside the existing conflicts,” he added. At the same time, the recent developments must not be left unmentioned, he said. “All anti-Hungarian actions are unacceptable, but all of this happened in Mukachevo district and not in the whole of Transcarpathia,” he said. “We very much trust that such anti-Hungarian actions will not be experienced elsewhere,” he added.

Government meeting. Viktor Orbán speaks, deputy foreign minister Levente Magyar in the background.

“We have called on local leaders in Mukachevo district to have the anti-Hungarian measures withdrawn and the status quo ante restored immediately, and told Ukraine’s national leaders that we expect them to make make every effort to ensure that local leaders act respectfully, and the attacks and atrocities against ethnic Hungarians are stopped,” he said.

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Ukrainian revenge on Hungarians

“Despite the war, conditions are reasonably calm in Transcarpathia and it would be very good if this remained the case,” he added. He also said that if Ukraine wants to be a member of the European Union and follow European values then that is not compatible with stripping ethnic communities, or any minority, of their rights. Menczer also reacted to criticism by the Slovak foreign minister about Hungary, stating that the Hungarian prime minister and the government had been elected by the Hungarian people, and if Rastislav Kacer keeps insulting the Hungarian prime minister, then he does not accept Hungarians’ decision, thereby he insults them.

According to the Magyar Nemzet, the powerful Baloga-clan ordered the removal of the Hungarian flags and symbols in Fornos and Dercen, two small villages near Munkács populated mostly by Hungarian nationals. They referred to an unknown decree that prohibited using non-domestic national flags. Furthermore, a Hungarian secondary school director was sacked lately. György Dunda, a reporter for Magyar Nemzet living in Ungvár, Transcarpathia, said there was no such decree. Hungarian flags are displayed in other settlements of the region too. He added the attacks were just the pitiful revenge of the Baloga clan. Andrij is the mayor of Munkács and the leader of the local Hungarian party that went into opposition recently. His father is Victor Baloga, an MP.

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Source: MTI, Magyar Nemzet