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Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén held a forum in Kazinbarcika where, among other topics, he talked about the Ukrainian conflict, and in connection to it, NATO.
The KDNP leader made some strong statements during the forum, the strongest one probably being:
If Ukraine were a NATO member, there would be a world war.”
The government politician echoed the government’s position that Hungarian soldiers cannot be sent to Ukraine. “If a Hungarian soldier gets into an armed conflict with a Russian soldier, we will expose ourselves to a retaliatory strike,” he said, adding that under no circumstances should the Hungarian government allow an attack from Hungary against another country. As an example, he said: “Let’s say […] if someone fired a rocket from Miskolc, I’m not sure that in half an hour Miskolc and its surroundings would be there.”
Recently, the opposition’s joint candidate for prime minister, Péter Márki-Zay, was accused of wanting to send Hungarian soldiers to Ukraine; however, he emphasized that “Hungary, a NATO member, is aligned with the position of our military alliance and is not sending troops to Ukraine. Hungarian soldiers have no place in a war of a tyrant out of control.”
Semjén said that the Hungarian government is being attacked (on international forums and in the press) because it blocked Ukraine’s admission to NATO.
We had no other option because of the disenfranchisement of the Hungarian minority.”
According to him, according to co-ruling KDNP’s president, Péter Márki-Zay “went beyond all limits” when he said in his video on Sunday that “their conscription is a Ukrainian conscription, the Russian tanks are Russian, let’s not exclude the possibility that many Transcarpathian Hungarians may have been pro-Russian rather than pro-Ukrainian in this conflict.” In doing so, Semjén said that the opposition PM candidate had literally put the life of the Transcarpathian Hungarians, who are already disenfranchised in Ukraine, at risk.
If these people had not had Hungarian citizenship, the Hungarians of Transcarpathia would be dead in this war,”
Semjén said. He added that they owe their lives to the fact that Fidesz introduced dual citizenship after 2010. “If it had been up to the opposition, they would not have Hungarian citizenship,” he added.
Ukraine has a right to sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the enforcement of international law, he continued, adding that it was no coincidence that Hungary was the first country to recognize Ukraine’s independence under József Antall. According to Semjén, there is a need for a buffer state between the Russian empire and the European Union, and it is in Hungary’s elementary interest to have a sovereign state in its neighborhood.
Zsolt Semjén also spoke at length about migration and the family protection referendum.
Featured image: Zsolt Semjén delivers a speech on the occasion of Nationalities Day at the presentation of the Nationalities Awards, in recognition of the activities of Hungarian nationalities in the field of culture at the Bulgarian Cultural Center in Budapest on December 17, 2021. Photo by Zsolt Szigetváry/MTI
