After Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in a speech to thousands of listeners in the Romanian spa town of Baile Tusnad last weekend, not only sharply criticized the EU’s Russia and asylum policies, but also fired racist slogans at Muslim refugees, Romania responded Monday. Paul Stanescu, general secretary of the ruling party PSD, announced that Romania is “not a launching pad for the anti-European and pro-Russian slogans of the Hungarian prime minister and his cabinet members”. Orban himself was described as “superficial, unbelievable and embarrassing”.
Orban, head of Hungary’s right-wing national governing party Fidesz, delivered his traditional speech to Hungarians on Saturday at the 31st Summer University in Baile Tusnad, the Hungarian name is Tusnádfürdö. He declared the West’s strategy against Russia a failure. “We’re in a car with four flat tires.” Orban had called on the West to adopt a more pro-Russian policy.
Orban’s Statements “As Superficial as Unbelievable”
Should Orban and his party criticize the EU or NATO or make statements about Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, they would “please do so at home,” Secretary-General Stanescu said, according to which there was no “toxic mixture” between Romanian national territory of their own, pro-Western attitude and that of the neighboring country. Claiming that “the West has failed” is as “superficial as it is unbelievable” — especially when such statements come from top politicians from a state “completely isolated at the EU level,” it said.
Excitement over racist spokesmen
Orban also made negative headlines with racist rhetoric. He said, for example, that Europe is divided into “that world in which the European peoples mingle with those who come from outside”. On the other hand, there is the Carpathian Basin, where European peoples such as Hungarians, Romanians, Slovaks and others intermingled. “We’re ready to mix, but we don’t want to become a mixed race,” Orban said.
The PSD Secretary General demanded that future Romanian-Hungarian relations be free from such “embarrassing and provocative moments” and finally added, with a clear dig to the Hungarian nationalists, that in accordance with the Constitution in Romania “there is no autonomy based on ethnic criteria”.
Orban’s latest speech is likely to influence the already rather cool relations between the two neighboring countries even more – Romania had expressly banned such provocations shortly before the summer university in Baile Tusnad.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
