Four years ago, the unit was able to believe that the Kremlin will be decided on the invasion of Ukraine, although Moscow, in fact, never ceased to manipulate the topic of the rights of “ethnic Russians”. Long before the annexation of Crimea and invading the Donbass there were openly Pro-Russian organization “Oplot”, “Youth unity” and the like. Moscow every year more and louder indignant “undemocratic” attitude of the Ukrainian politicians. At different times, the official Kiev is either ignoring the problem or deferring these processes.
In view of the recent statements of the Hungarian leadership suggests a troubling parallel. No, on the border with Transcarpathia not going tanks, and there is no reason for panic. But certain trends in the Hungarian society inspire anxiety. The experience of the Crimea and the Donbas have shown that the problem will not disappear if you close her eyes. What game leads the Budapest — versed “Explorer.”
Hungarian autonomy
On March 24 in Budapest hosted the forum of Hungarian MPs from the countries of Carpathian basin with participation of the highest officials — Parliament speaker, foreign Minister and other leaders of Hungary. During the event, politicians confirmed their readiness to give strong support to the Diaspora of Hungarians in neighbouring countries. Participants stated that the desire of the Hungarian communities to establish autonomy in other States should be included in the agenda of the European Parliament. Of course, the prospects of this are almost zero, but now not about it.
Earlier, on March 21, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen encouraged to promote Hungarian parties in other countries and also referred to autonomy. “Survival of the Hungarians living abroad depends on whether they will be able to achieve success, moving towards autonomy”, — said Deputy Prime Minister.
The Ukrainian leadership, of course, could not respond with silence to clear the pin: followed by a restrained and very measured response. According to the Ministry of foreign Affairs, Kiev is counting on respect for the territorial integrity of Ukraine and to further good neighbourly relations. “Any speculation on this subject does not correspond to the interests of our two countries and peoples and, hopefully, do not reflect the official position of Budapest” — said the Minister. However, it is not clear how we can hope for is, given the fact that such statements sound from lips of the first persons of Hungary.
Increased nationalism
No statements of the official Budapest of autonomy is not related specifically to Ukraine. Hungary still suffers from severe phantom pain associated with the loss of territory after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. So their nostalgia is related to Romania, Slovakia and Serbia. However, there are all sorts of allusions to autonomy strongly suppress.
On the subject of Ukrainian Transcarpathia in Hungary speculating for a long time. In recent insinuations intensified due to the rapid growth of nationalist sentiment in the country. The revisionist position is the far-right party “Jobbik” is the third largest political force in the Hungarian Parliament.
In may last year in Uzhgorod came to the activist of the “Jobbik” erdely Attila Szalay, who promised to “return” Zakarpate of Hungary. In 2014, Jobbik held a Congress of Carpathian Rusyns, which urged to join forces in the struggle for the creation of “Carpatho-Ruthenian region” in the part of Hungary. To say nothing of the fact that the representative of the party from the rostrum of the parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called the Russian Crimea, and Transcarpathia — Hungarian.
The position of ethnic Hungarians
In Transcarpathia there live about 150 thousand ethnic Hungarians. According to official data, about 100 thousand residents of the region have a Hungarian passport. On the eve of the recent local elections there have been calls to create national autonomy, but they were rather solitary. The communities themselves serve only for the formation of prytysyans’ka district, which, by design, must cover the places of compact residence of ethnic Hungarians.
In the elections of 2015 are two Hungarian organizations of Transcarpathia KMKSZ UMDSZ and United and scored a good indicator (more than 8%), received adequate representation in local councils. Ethnic Hungarians there are more than enough opportunities for self-determination, so that any infringement of the rights of the question. They certainly angered a bill to ban dual citizenship, introduced by the President Petro Poroshenko in Parliament. However, if the parliamentarians in the near future and will reach his hands, the draft law will be finished still.
Yes, and Budapest is not going to open the destabilisation of the situation in Transcarpathia, most likely limiting the game to nutriorganica nationalist sentiment. Unlike Russia, Hungary member of the European Union and, in this case, even more importantly, NATO. It is a powerful deterrent. But this does not mean that Kyiv could in good conscience ignore the problematic economic situation in Transcarpathia, which pushes many residents of the region to seek a better life in neighboring Hungary.
As reported by the “observer”, Hungary expressed regret about the decline of the Russian economy.
