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If Ukraine loses its statehood due to a Russian invasion, Hungary’s far-right Naše Vlast party will claim Ukraine’s western region, home to about 150,000 ethnic Hungarians, party leader Laszlo Toroczkai said late Saturday.
“If this war ends with Ukraine losing its statehood, because that is also on the agenda, then I would like to say on behalf of the only Hungarian party that holds this position that we claim Zakarpattia,” he said to applause from the Crowd. The Naše Vlast party currently has six representatives in the 199-member Hungarian parliament.
Orbán did not march
“As far as the war in Ukraine is concerned, our message is very simple: an immediate ceasefire, peace and a negotiated solution,” the party leader said in a video posted on his party’s website. He called for autonomy for ethnic Hungarians in western Ukraine. Politicians from the AfD and the Dutch Forum for Democracy were also present at the conference where these words were spoken.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán expressed support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in an interview with public broadcaster in December. However, Orbán rejects Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. Nevertheless, EU member states agreed last month to start accession negotiations with Ukraine. The bloc’s leaders overrode Orbán’s opposition by forcing him to leave the hall while he made the decision, writes Reuters.
In addition, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó is scheduled to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and Prime Minister Denis Šmyhal on Monday. The meeting is intended to prepare the ground for a possible meeting of the heads of state and government of both countries. Budapest, for example, has complained in the past that the rights of around 150,000 ethnic Hungarians were being restricted because they could not officially use their native language.
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