[LINK] "Playing with Fire"
Transition Online's Martin Ehl reports on the ill-timing of Hungary's push for self-government for the Magyar minority in Ukraine.
Last week, leaders of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland competed at a security conference in Bratislava in the political categories of cynicism and hypocrisy. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban proved himself the master. He defended his call, several days old, for the 200,000-strong Hungarian minority in Ukraine to be granted autonomy. At a time when some of that country’s eastern regions are attempting to secede, such comments were considered, to say the least, inappropriate and playing to Russian efforts to make Ukraine as chaotic as possible before the presidential elections there on 25 May.
[. . .]
On 16 May, Orban added a few more things during a television interview. He said in the European Union there are many types of autonomy, from which Hungarians living in Ukraine can simply choose. And any government in Ukraine must be aware that the Hungarian state will support the request of the Hungarian minority. Now is a good time for such a request, he said, when a new Ukraine is being built. Only at the end did Orban say, in so far as Russian actions are considered, that of course Hungary supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
In Bratislava Orban called on his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, to be equally hard on Ukraine. Tusk nearly blew up right then and there, in public. The Polish approach to its troubled neighbor has been the exact opposite, because the Poles are not playing with fire like the Hungarians. Even if they could, the Polish government is well aware of the direct threat flowing from an unstable Ukraine. Warsaw is thus trying to help the Ukrainians on the European scene - without opening up old wounds. Officially 150,000 members of the Polish minority live in Ukraine and historians are still analyzing the details of their mutual massacres, which are only 70 years old.
On the sidelines of the conference, Hungarian government officials tried to defend the prime minister by saying that his words were meant primarily for a domestic audience. But it did not occur to them that this is exactly the danger threatening Europe as the European Parliament elections approach: the extent to which politicians concentrate more on the domestic audience and omit, intentionally or not, the broader context - the importance of the stability and prosperity of neighboring countries and, accordingly, of the entire continent.
Last week, leaders of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland competed at a security conference in Bratislava in the political categories of cynicism and hypocrisy. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban proved himself the master. He defended his call, several days old, for the 200,000-strong Hungarian minority in Ukraine to be granted autonomy. At a time when some of that country’s eastern regions are attempting to secede, such comments were considered, to say the least, inappropriate and playing to Russian efforts to make Ukraine as chaotic as possible before the presidential elections there on 25 May.
[. . .]
On 16 May, Orban added a few more things during a television interview. He said in the European Union there are many types of autonomy, from which Hungarians living in Ukraine can simply choose. And any government in Ukraine must be aware that the Hungarian state will support the request of the Hungarian minority. Now is a good time for such a request, he said, when a new Ukraine is being built. Only at the end did Orban say, in so far as Russian actions are considered, that of course Hungary supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
In Bratislava Orban called on his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, to be equally hard on Ukraine. Tusk nearly blew up right then and there, in public. The Polish approach to its troubled neighbor has been the exact opposite, because the Poles are not playing with fire like the Hungarians. Even if they could, the Polish government is well aware of the direct threat flowing from an unstable Ukraine. Warsaw is thus trying to help the Ukrainians on the European scene - without opening up old wounds. Officially 150,000 members of the Polish minority live in Ukraine and historians are still analyzing the details of their mutual massacres, which are only 70 years old.
On the sidelines of the conference, Hungarian government officials tried to defend the prime minister by saying that his words were meant primarily for a domestic audience. But it did not occur to them that this is exactly the danger threatening Europe as the European Parliament elections approach: the extent to which politicians concentrate more on the domestic audience and omit, intentionally or not, the broader context - the importance of the stability and prosperity of neighboring countries and, accordingly, of the entire continent.