In a video posted to his Facebook page on Wednesday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade asked President of Romania Klaus Iohannis to show Hungary more respect to the Hungarians. Mr. Szijjártó was reacting to Wednesday’s television speech by the Romanian President.

The head of state explained his opinion with relation to the fact that the lower house of Romanian Parliament had implicitly accepted a bill relating to the territorial autonomy of Szeklerland recently. Klaus Iohannis explained: The Social Democratic Party (PSD), which represents the largest power in Parliament, “is fighting to give Transylvania to the Hungarians”. Greeting the PSD President in Hungarian, he asked: “I wonder what Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán promised in return for this agreement?”.
According to Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, the statement by the Romanian President “is particularly uncivilised and suitable for inciting hatred”. “Klaus Iohannis must be aware of the fact that the majority of Hungarians living in Transylvania and Szeklerland voted for him at the Romanian presidential elections”, he said.

“Hungary has an interest in maintaining good relations with Romania in view of the fact that the two countries are important trade partners, and it is also in the interests of Hungarians living in Transylvania and Szeklerland for relations between the two countries to be normal”, Mr. Szijjártó emphasised. “In recent days, however, representatives of the Romanian state have regularly made statements that are making the maintaining of good neighbourly relations more difficult”, he added.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)