The leader of Hungary’s united democratic opposition, Péter Márki-Zay, pointed out Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s deafening silence on the invasion of its peaceful eastern neighbour by Vladimir Putin’s Russia. He added pointedly that Mr. Orbán would avoid condemning his ruthless Russian ally even if the Hungarian minority in western Ukraine were directly threatened by the current war.
“In 1956, we learned what it was like to have an independent state invaded by the Russians. Now we are seeing the same thing happening before our eyes: Vladimir Putin’s Russia has invaded Ukraine,” Péter Márki-Zay, the democratic opposition’s joint candidate for prime minister, noted in a statement shared on Facebook. “Orbán refuses to condemn the war launched by the Russians and he refuses to condemn Putin’s actions. Not even when the lives of Transcarpathian Hungarians are at stake will he speak up,” Mr. Márki-Zay added. The opposition’s candidate for prime minister also reminded Hungarians that barely two weeks ago Mr. Orbán travelled to Moscow, “at the command of Vladimir Putin,” to engage in bilateral talks with the aggressor.
Péter Márky-Zaj speaks out on the invasion of Ukraine on February 24th.
The Hungarian opposition’s leader referred to Prime Minister Orbán as the greatest traitor of the Western world. He added that the opposition, which is seeking to remove Orbán from power in national elections on 3 April, is in solidarity with Ukraine as a nation, and with some 150,000 Transcarpathian Hungarians.
Hungarians standing in solidarity with their Ukrainian neighbours will gather Thursday evening for a peaceful protest in front of the Russian embassy in Budapest, at Bajza utca 35. Mr. Márki-Zay is inviting his supporters to participate and the opposition leader will be giving a speech during the demonstration.
While Mr. Orbán suggested that the war in Ukraine was a matter for Ukrainians and Russians to sort out, and that Hungary should not be drawn in, Minister of Foreign Affairs Péter Szijjártó went further. He made the war in Ukraine and whether Hungary should speak out against Moscow a matter of left versus right. Mr. Szijjártó, rather shamefully, declared during a trip to Bahrain that the Hungarian left was trying to embroil the country in the military conflict by having Budapest provide either military equipment or troops to the Ukrainians. Mr. Szijjártó called these suggests “irresponsible” and then went on to say that “we will not allow anyone to drag Hungary into the war.” At the same time, turning to a type of see-saw politics, Mr. Szijjártó said that Hungary would participate in the joint European response to the crisis.
It’s clearer than day that Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched under the absurd justification that Moscow must “denazify” the Ukrainians and based on the warped belief that Ukraine has no historical right to exist, will put Mr. Orbán into a particularly awkward position.
