Slovakia and Romania Summon Hungarian Ambassadors After Orban's Remarks

The Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned the Hungarian ambassador after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called Slovakia "part of a province far from Hungary" in the Romanian city of Baile Tusnad on Saturday.

The Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported this in a comment to the Napunk portal.

The ministry's statement emphasises that Czechoslovakia, and therefore Slovakia and Hungary, are equally the successors of Austria-Hungary, so "they could not tear anything away from present-day Hungary".

"Any indirect or direct questioning of Slovakia's territorial integrity or sovereignty is absolutely unacceptable to us," the Slovak Foreign Ministry said.

"It is in our interest to maintain normal and calm relations with Hungary, but with mutual consideration of sensitive issues and mutual respect. The recent statements of the Hungarian prime minister do not correspond to this," the ministry added.

For his part, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto separately confirmed the summons of the Hungarian ambassador to Romania, saying that "it was not a big surprise".

"The tone and atmosphere of the meeting can be described as calm and polite. The statements made by the Romanian deputy secretary of state practically repeated the theses of the previous demarche, this time with clarifications made after the speech," he wrote on Facebook.

This refers to the demarche of two weeks ago, when the Romanian ambassador handed over instructions from Bucharest to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, which detailed what could not be discussed at the Tusvanyos Summer University in the Romanian resort town of Beile Tusnad.

Although Bucharest asked Orban not to talk about anything that could offend Romanian feelings, including national symbols and national minorities, he welcomed the Hungarians who came with the national flag and the flag of the Székes (an ethnic group of Hungarians in Romania).

It is worth noting that in 2022, at the same event, Orban spoke out against the "mixing" of European and non-European races in a speech that immediately sparked outrage among opposition parties and European politicians.

"We Hungarians are not a mixed race... and we do not want to become a mixed race," Orban said. He added that countries where Europeans and non-Europeans mix "are no longer nations".

In this year's speech, Orban predicted the decline of the West and predicted "decades of insecurity, uncertainty and war".

He called for a new EU strategy on Russia's war against Ukraine, saying that sanctions have failed and Ukraine will never win.

The Hungarian prime minister also hinted that Russia's attack on Ukraine could have been avoided and that he blamed its Western allies for not giving in to Putin's demands against Ukraine's interests.

Earlier, The Gaze reported on "Greater Hungary: Is it realistic to 'revive' the Hungarian Empire?"