The leader of the Hungarian parliamentary faction “Our Motherland” and member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Laszlo Torockai said that he personally and the deputies of his faction have repeatedly received threats from Ukrainian radicals in recent months.
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“Ukrainian terrorists threaten the entire parliamentary faction in Hungary and me personally – I am also a member of the (Parliamentary Assembly) of the Council of Europe – because of our position on the war in Ukraine,” Torockai said.
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In a video posted on the YouTube channel, he said that on February 13, deputies from Our Motherland received emails from the Ukrainian ultras organization threatening “severe punishment for plans to occupy Transcarpathia,” members of the radical organization threatened to “set fire to the office, blow up the car , kill” the deputies.
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The second threat was sent to the email addresses of Hungarian deputies on February 28, members of the organization “Fan at War” recorded a video in which they demanded “an official apology to the Ukrainian people for calls for the annexation of Transcarpathia.”
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“I will not apologize to the Ukrainian people, because I have nothing to apologize for. Because you guys completely misunderstood us. Hungary does not want to occupy Transcarpathia, we do not want war, we want peace. We did not threaten and do not threaten the Ukrainian people, Hungary has accepted tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees,” Torockai said.
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He recalled that the party’s program includes recognition of the legitimacy of the 1991 referendum in Ukraine in Transcarpathia, which proclaimed the granting of autonomy to Transcarpathia, and to the Berehovo region – Hungarian territorial autonomy within Ukraine. “This legal referendum is being illegally ignored by the government in Kyiv,” Torotskai emphasized.
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The Hungarian deputy noted that the reason for the threats against his party is not the position of “Our Motherland” regarding Transcarpathia, but the position of the Hungarian authorities regarding Ukraine’s accession to the EU and the financing of the Ukrainian state at the expense of European taxpayers.
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He also announced plans to widely distribute the video of the threats, which is currently available with subtitles in 17 languages.
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At the end of January, Torotskai said that his party was the only one in Hungary that would lay claim to Transcarpathia if Ukraine lost statehood. The head of the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office, Gergely Gulyas, called Torocka’s statement irresponsible, since Budapest complies with international law.
