The scarf shows the borders of the former Kingdom of Hungary, which included areas of today’s Austria, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia and Ukraine.Zagreb. Orbán wore the scarf during Hungary’s game against Greece on Sunday. He then posted a photo of it himself on Instagram. Many Hungarians have still not come to terms with the collapse of the Danube monarchy, in the course of which two-thirds of Hungary’s territory was lost. While Budapest had previously ruled over other peoples in a similar way to Vienna, many Hungarians became minorities in the new neighboring states.
Immediate protest against Orbán’s scarf came from Romania, where the largest Hungarian minority lives today. The Foreign Ministry in Bucharest described the head of government’s wearing of the scarf as a “revisionist statement”.
apology requested
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry immediately demanded an “apology” and a clarification that there were no Hungarian claims to Ukrainian state territory. “The promotion of revisionist views in Hungary does not contribute to the development of Ukrainian-Hungarian relations and does not correspond to the principles of European politics,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said on Tuesday. Relations between Kyiv and Budapest are strained because Orbán has long questioned Western support for Ukraine.
Serene Croatia
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković stressed on Monday that he had not seen the footage. “I don’t get to deal with other people’s scarves,” he said, according to the Croatian news agency HINA. “As for the territorial claims on Croatia by anyone, including Hungary, they are absolutely unacceptable, for us it is not an option,” the conservative politician clarified.
President Zoran Milanović advised against an official reaction from Zagreb. “I have to laugh about it. His ambitions in Croatia are limited to him cruising around the Adriatic Sea for a month in August and we meet for dinner,” said Milanović, referring to Orbán. No special attention should be paid to it. “If you look at the neighbors we have, this one is still the best,” said the President.
Source: Nachrichten
