The nationalist prime minister Hungarian, Victor Orbánhas angered his country’s eastern neighbours, Romania and Ukrainewearing a football scarf emblazoned with a map of an enlarged Hungary{
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The image depicts Greater Hungary, the former imperial Hungarian territory that existed before Austria-Hungary’s defeat in World War I and included parts of Ukraine and Romania.
Romania expressed its “firm disapproval” by Orban’s gesture, in a message addressed to the Hungarian ambassador in Bucharest.
Ukraine demanded an official apology.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko stated that kyiv had summoned the Hungarian ambassador “to inform him of the unacceptability of Viktor Orban’s act.”
“The promotion of revisionist ideas in Hungary does not contribute to the development of Ukrainian-Hungarian relations and does not correspond to the principles of European politics,” he said on Facebook.
Orban’s Instagram profile contains a video in which he is seen greeting Hungarian footballers and wearing the scarf, which he wore during a match between Hungary and Greece on Sunday.
About 1.2 million Hungarians live in Romania and 150,000 in western Ukraine. There have already been tensions over Orban’s efforts to promote Hungarian identity in both countries.
In protest, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “any revisionist demonstration, regardless of the form it takes, is unacceptable, contrary to current realities and the commitments jointly assumed by Romania and Hungary.”
The former Hungarian territory also included parts of what is now Austria, Croatia, Serbia and Slovakia.
On Facebook, Orban assured that the Hungarian team was “the team of all hungarianslive where they live.”
“Football is not politics. Let’s not see what isn’t there,” she said.
For years, Orban has been criticized in Europe for curbing media freedom and the rights of minorities and civil society groups, as well as for his longstanding friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He has been accused of undermining the EU’s fundamental values, while he accuses Brussels of exceeding its powers.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
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