Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó summoned Ukraine’s ambassador to Hungary on Tuesday and strongly called on his country to end interference in the elections through the opposition TISZA party. According to the telex.hu server, the head of Hungarian diplomacy announced it himself on Facebook, reports the TASR correspondent in Budapest.
- The Hungarian minister summoned the Ukrainian ambassador due to interference in the elections.
- Szijjártó called on Ukraine to respect Hungarian sovereignty.
- According to Hungary, Ukraine is influencing the April parliamentary elections through the TISZA party.
- Prime Minister Orbán claims that this is a coordinated series of Ukrainian measures.
- The opposition party TISZA criticizes Hungary’s dual approach to other countries.
“We strongly call on the Ukrainians to end their interference in the Hungarian election process through the TISZA party. They should respect Hungarian sovereignty, which we, the national sovereign government of Hungary, will defend with all available means,” said the foreign minister after speaking with the Ukrainian ambassador in Budapest.
Interference by Ukraine
“In the past few days, a new era of election preparations has begun. The President of Ukraine and his government have engaged in blatant, shameless, open and gross interference,” he added. According to Szijjártó, it is obvious that the neighboring country wants to influence the outcome of the April elections.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a Facebook post on Monday that the Ukrainian government is trying to interfere in Hungary’s April parliamentary elections with a coordinated series of measures.
Orbán’s reaction
Orbán noted that Hungarian national security authorities have evaluated “this latest Ukrainian attack” and concluded that “what happened is part of a coordinated series of Ukrainian measures to interfere in Hungarian elections.”
The Hungarian Prime Minister closed the short video by announcing that, in order to protect Hungarian sovereignty and the integrity of the elections on Monday, he had authorized Szijjártó to summon the Ukrainian ambassador.
Criticism of foreign policy
The leader of the TISZA party responsible for foreign policy, Anita Orbánová, asked Szijjártó on Facebook in connection with the summons of the Ukrainian ambassador why he “forgot” to summon the Russian ambassador when a Russian rocket hit the city of Mukachevo, or the Slovak ambassador for the fact that Hungarians living in Slovakia face six months in prison for “questioning” Beneš’s decrees.
