At home: the people of Orbán also needed a change of course for relations with Ukraine to deteriorate until now

To put it mildly, Hungary’s relations with Ukraine were frozen before the election of our eastern neighbor: Kiev accused Budapest of interfering in the country’s internal affairs by “whispering to the electorate” and encouraging them to support the Hungarian candidates. Ukrainians not only spoke on the air, and Interior Minister Dmitro Kuleba said Monday that two senior Hungarian officials would be banned for “agitation.”

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó also did not delay a response, announcing on Tuesday morning that Ukrainians know exactly that the consent of all EU and NATO member states is needed for the integration of a new state, but Ukraine renounces support. Hungarian by appointing two Hungarian members. it’s kitilt.

Although at first glance the bans appear to be concrete responses to the fact that, for example, János Árpád Pótápi in Transcarpathia, who was very encouraged to vote for the Hungarian candidates before the October 25 elections, is in fact the last stage of a long battle. The relationship between Hungary and Ukraine has been deteriorating since the mid-2010s.

From the victory of democracy to the province of Soros

Like most things in 21st-century Ukraine, this dates back to Majdan, which began in 2013, and the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. The communication from the then Foreign Ministry, still headed by János Martonyi, was clearly in favor of the Ukrainian side, urging a peaceful solution, condemning the Russian aggression and urging the European integration of Ukraine.

The picture began to change during the 2014 Hungarian parliamentary elections, when Viktor Orbán already focused on the situation of the Hungarians in Transcarpathia and began to spectacularly oppose the anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the EU on Crimea.

After the short career of Foreign Minister Tibor Navracsics, the latter became really important with the arrival of Péter Szijjártó: the pro-democracy Ukraine was slowly replaced by the pro-economic Ukraine that demanded the lifting of sanctions: in 2017 it claimed 6.5 billion dollars in Hungarian losses. State on the Russian sanctions, which however voted to keep.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian side increasingly saw Vladimir Putin’s EU MP in the Orbans: Hungary obtained a € 10-12 billion Russian loan to expand the Paks nuclear power plant in 2014, while at the same At one time there were growing voices in the Hungarian government media that Majdan was actually the USA, their secret organization, in which the Ukrainian fascists were somehow involved. This narrative is one on one in line with the Russian position, where the annexation of Crimea was actually sold as a defense against the LGBTQ lobby and fascists. On the Hungarian side, this has now been reinforced by the fact that the XXI. This year’s study by the Century Research Institute described Ukraine only as the province of George Soros.

The narrative, which is furious at the same time as liberals and the far right, has a minimal basis anyway: Since the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine, there is a truly independent world consensus that Vladimir Putin should be ousted. from Ukraine as soon as possible. as secular minded students.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that there are several genuinely pro-Russian organizations disguised as Ukrainian nationalists in the country, who want to reinforce the image that fascists came to power in the country after the expulsion of President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.

A bad law came at a good time

While it is not difficult to see why it is good for Vladimir Putin, who visits Hungary almost every year, for an EU member to play against Ukraine, it should not be forgotten that the Ukrainian leadership led by President Petro Poroshenko, who replaced Yanukovych , has given Hungarian foreign policy a serious tool in 2017. with the Education Law of Ukraine adopted in

here the relationship between the two countries deteriorated forever.

The law, as well as the secondary education law, which has also been passed since then, mandates the gradual transition from fifth grade to Ukrainian-language education in ethnic schools from the fifth grade, which, according to the Hungarian representation in Transcarpathia and the Hungarian government, acquired rights. In fact, the law makes the use of the Ukrainian language mandatory everywhere, except in ceremonies and private conversations.

Therefore, the language law is really a problem for minorities, and it is not that difficult to see that it was brought against the Russian minority, which officially represents 17 percent of the country, and the Russian language, which is spoken as a language. state in many places, but it also affects the Hungarian minority of around 150,000. By the way, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences also drew attention to the danger of the disappearance of the Hungarian minority.

The real problem came almost well for the government to be able to openly reach a common platform with Moscow: according to the Russian side, László Kövér himself approached them by standing together against Ukraine to protect his minorities. Although this was denied by the Hungarian Parliament, Russia and Hungary were the strongest opponents of the language law, while many in the West saw the law as a tool used by Hungarians to strengthen their relations with Moscow.

In 2018, the tone changed on both sides, which was the case of an arson in February, when a bottle containing flammable liquid was thrown at the Hungarian headquarters of the Hungarian Cultural Association in Transcarpathia, and a few weeks later exploded and burned completely. The Ukrainian side spoke of a Russian order to undermine peace between the two peoples, and Polish nationalists were arrested in the case.

Even then, Péter Szijjártó called the Ukrainian ambassador and linked the attack to the language law, Viktor Orbán urged action against Ukrainian nationalism in the EU, and although the Hungarian representation in Ukraine responded in a peaceful and exemplary manner to the incident, According to Zsolt

The situation is clearly due to the centrally managed anti-Hungarian campaign that has been going on for several months, in which the Ukrainian state media and, within it, the Ukrainian state media have been at the forefront ”.

The Fidesz politician even regretted that no progress had been made in detecting the perpetrators, while the alleged Polish perpetrators were already in detention.

It is also revealing that as it turned out, at Viktor Orbán’s 2019 meeting, you may also try to tune in to US President Donald Trump against Ukraine.

Alleged separatism

Meanwhile, the Hungarian government was also awaiting the outcome of the 2019 Ukrainian presidential elections. This ended with the replacement of Poroshenko, followed by a comedian with no political past, Volodymyr Zelensky. Even the Ukrainians themselves could not decide what, if anything, they wanted to do with the country. Porosenko even signed the language law in May, promising to review it before Zelensky came to power. It also seemed logical because Zelensky himself was a native Russian speaker. He also promised a lot that the president would speak Hungarian in his New Year’s speech, but nothing happened with the law, and in the summer Kiev officially declared that it would not change anything beyond what the Venice Commission had asked, for example, its introduction was postponed until 2023..

The latest chapter in this controversy is therefore Hungary’s alleged interference in the municipal elections in October, which ended with the removal of the Zelensky party candidates. So a little explanation is not bad even for campaign tricks. The imagined Hungarian separatist aspirations are already in the toolbox anyway, in the summer of 2019, for example, the Ukrainian Cultural Association accused the Hungarian Cultural Association of Transcarpathia of representing the in parliamentary elections.

Bilateral humanity can successfully divert attention from the embarrassing affairs of both parties: the Hungarian government’s sympathy for Russia disappears in the shadow of this, as does Zelensky’s failure to keep his main promise, which was a swift conclusion of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia; While the fact that one of the Union’s Member States is engaging in such an open debate with Ukraine, which currently depends on the EU and NATO, is especially good for a third: Russia, of course.

Lead: Ukrainian President Petro Porosenko (b) welcomes Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Kiev on February 13, 2015