Zelensky under Kossuth's portrait: is there hope for a Ukraine-Hungary reconciliation?

Hungary has recently made several gestures towards Ukraine, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Transcarpathia, where he met with the leaders of the Hungarian community. Could this mean that there is hope for easing the strained relations between Ukraine and Hungary? While this is certainly a positive development, representatives of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia and experts are not optimistic.

Hungary has recently made several gestures towards Ukraine. The most important one was that Hungarian President Katalin Novak signed the letter of acceptance of the Ukrainian ambassador-designate, Sandor Fegyir. In doing so, she disproved the left-wing media's accusations that the Hungarian president had kept the diplomat, who is partly of Hungarian descent, waiting in order to "teach the unfriendly leadership in Kiev a lesson.” In this context, it is worth comparing how long Hungarian ambassadors have had to wait in similar situations in the past: in the latest cases, it was six to eight months, security expert Attila Demko recalled. Moreover, the Hungarian head of state is due to visit Ukraine again soon. 

She is slated to visit Transcarpathia and then attend the next meeting of the Crimean Platform on 23 August at the invitation of Volodymyr Zelensky.

A positive gesture

In the meantime, Volodymyr Zelensky has visited Transcarpathia. The last time he did so was during the election campaign, when he did not meet separately with representatives of the Hungarian community. Now he has made time for them – it is unclear whether this can be seen as a sign of rapprochement. 

“In any case, it is a positive gesture that during his visit to Transcarpathia, the Ukrainian president also visited Berehovo, the center of the Hungarian community, where he met with the leaders of the Transcarpathian Hungarians. During the meeting, problems affecting the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia and other minorities living in Ukraine were addressed both verbally and in writing. These include the constitutional right to use one's own language and to receive education in one's mother tongue.

The president promised to address the problems raised after the war."

said the Transcarpathian Hungarian Cultural Association (KMKSZ) in response to a question by Magyar Nemzet. The rare visit indeed gave Transcarpathian Hungarians a chance to personally voice their problems, which would otherwise have reached the president only through his advisers and the press. 

Zoltan Babjak, the ethnic Hungarian mayor of Berehovo, told the Hungarian news portal Mandiner that he took the opportunity to tell Volodymyr Zelensky how important it was that he had also spoken Hungarian in his 2019 New Year's address. He expressed the hope that the visit would also bring progress in relations between Hungary and Ukraine.

It is too early to celebrate

Could this really be a first step towards easing the strained relations? Istvan Ijgyarto, former ambassador to Kiev, told our newspaper that the presidential visit and the meeting with Hungarian leaders was undoubtedly an important gesture, but it should also be stressed that it was aimed exclusively at Transcarpathian Hungarians. In addition, the Hungarian press published an extremely unpleasant and accusatory statement by presidential advisor Mikhailo Podolyak, who regularly portrays bilateral relations in a negative light and smears the Hungarian leadership.

“Even if the leadership in Kiev wants to be somewhat more sympathetic to the problems of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia, it has no intention of improving relations with Budapest as long as the Hungarian leadership does not behave according to Ukrainian expectations. The reception and possible results of Katalin Novak's visit to Kiev will show if there is any change in this regard," concluded the senior researcher at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs.

The expert also stressed, however, that the representatives of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia had a direct opportunity to voice their concerns, especially regarding the negative consequences of the education law adopted in 2017. 

As a symbolic gesture, the meeting took place in the Lajos Kossuth Hungarian Secondary School in Berehovo, where the president was sitting under a portrait of Kossuth, renowned governor-president of Hungary during the revolution of 1848. However, when the parts of the education act relating to minority education enter into force, the secondary school will neither be allowed to retain the name of Kossuth nor to remain a Hungarian-language school. It will only be able to provide some form of mother tongue education at class or group level. 

Ildiko Orosz, president of the Transcarpathian Hungarian Pedagogical Association, presented the president with a complete package of proposals for a solution. Whether this will have any effect and if so, what practical steps the Kiev leadership plans to take to remedy the situation is still unclear, the expert said. The fact that Ukrainian president thanked the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia for its sacrificial support and for the humanitarian efforts in Hungary was an important gesture, Ms Orosz underlined. Kiev has not expressed its gratitude for that so far, and the issue has mostly been silenced by the Ukrainian media.

Have they turned down the volume?

Also striking is the development that the Ukrainians seem to have "turned down the volume" in their criticism of the Hungarians. But Istvan Ijgyarto, Hungary's outgoing ambassador to Ukraine, who still regularly follows the press, points out that as relations have deteriorated, attacks on Hungary and sometimes on Transcarpathian Hungarians have become regular, and they often had a biased and undignified tone. “Since the events that could be blamed on Hungary and Hungarian politics, such as the NATO summit, had mostly taken place, they tried to stir the pot with smaller, controversial stories. For example, the alleged incident of the Ukrainian children's group in the border town of Zahony or the case of the Ukrainian ambassador. 

The expert also pointed out that the Ukrainian press likes to portray Hungary as a state that is in constant conflict with its other neighbors, for example by quoting negative articles in the Slovak press.

“All in all, I would attribute the relatively lower number of 'anti-Hungarian' articles to the less eventful summer period rather than to a positive change," Mr Ijgyarto concluded.

Cover photo: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky under a portrait of Lajos Kossuth (Photo: Facebook)