Hungary will not support Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and NATO as long as the country continues to have laws that violate the rights of minorities to use their native language. This was stated by Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto at a meeting with UN Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights Ilse Brands Keris in New York.
“Hungary will not be able to support the transatlantic and European integration of Ukraine as long as the Hungarian schools in Transcarpathia are in danger,” Mr. Szijjarto wrote on Facebook (the social network belongs to Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia). He noted that he made it clear to his interlocutor in New York.
The minister said that 1,300 schools and kindergartens in Hungary accept children of Ukrainian refugees, while 99 Hungarian primary and secondary schools in Ukraine “are under threat of closure due to the Ukrainian law on education.” According to Budapest, Kyiv has been adopting laws since 2015 that violate and reduce the rights of minorities associated with the use of their native language. As Mr. Szijjarto notes, the Ukrainian authorities have been promising to solve the problem for the past eight years, but they “actually did nothing.”
Peter Szijjártó made similar statements earlier this week in an interview with reporters. He promised that Budapest would not support “any significant integration movement of Ukraine towards the EU or NATO until the rights of the Hungarian national community are restored in Ukraine.” In January, the minister accused Kyiv of “tough mobilization” of the Transcarpathian Hungarians. In July 2022, he said that Hungary had a military scenario to protect the Hungarians in western Ukraine.
