The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has described as «unacceptable» the image of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán appearing at a soccer match wearing a scarf showing a map of ‘Greater Hungary, which includes parts of other states, such as Romania or Ukraine itself.
«The promotion of revisionist ideas in Hungary does not contribute to the development of Ukrainian-Hungarian relations,» criticized Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko, who called the event «unacceptable.»
In this regard, Nikolenko announced that the Hungarian ambassador to Ukraine will be summoned to the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make him see the disagreement of the Kiev government with this new Orbán’s rebuff.
«We are waiting for an official apology from the Hungarian side and a refutation of the usurpations of Ukraine’s territorial integrity,» Nikolenko claimed.
Orbán’s gesture has also been criticized in Romania, another of the states from which that ‘Greater Hungary’ takes territories. MEP Alin Mituta said that Orbán’s «irresponsible» and «revisionist» gesture puts him «next to» Russian President Vladimir Putin, who also «dreams» of changing the borders.
«Orbán must be held accountable for this act incompatible with the status of a member of the family of liberal democracies,» Mituta has emphasized.
This is not the first time that Orbán has appealed to the revisionism represented by ‘Greater Hungary’, a state that refers to the kingdom of Hungary that lost its territories after the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I.