Hungary’s Magyar seeks reset with Kyiv, proposes June summit with Zelensky | EUROtoday

Hungary’s incoming prime minister Peter Magyar on Tuesday supplied to fulfill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “open a new chapter in bilateral relations” and tackle a long-running feud over the rights of Ukraine’s ethnic Hungarians.

Relations between the 2 neighbours hit all-time low earlier than Hungary’s April 12 election that noticed Magyar beat long-time nationalist premier Viktor Orban.

Watch extraHungary can be “a tough partner, but a partner” on Ukraine, skilled says

Orban, who was ousted after 16 years in energy, had repeatedly used the central European nation’s veto energy to stall monetary help to Ukraine and sanctions in opposition to Russia within the EU.

“I am initiating a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for early June, symbolically in Berehove, which has a Hungarian majority,” Magyar mentioned in a Facebook publish after assembly the mayor of the Ukrainian metropolis in Budapest.

“The purpose of the meeting is to help improve the situation of Hungarians in Transcarpathia and enable them to remain in their homeland,” he added.

Ukraine’s western Transcarpathia area is house to a sizeable ethnic Hungarian group.

Relations first soured in 2017 when Kyiv adopted a regulation mandating Ukrainian as the principle language for secondary training.

Read extraPeter Magyar: former Fidesz insider who vowed to dismantle Orban system ‘brick by brick’

Hungary mentioned the regulation disenfranchised tens of hundreds of ethnic Hungarians, who dwell principally in Ukraine’s westernmost area of Transcarpathia – a part of the previous Kingdom of Hungary till the top of World War I.

“The time has come for Ukraine to lift the legal restrictions that have been in place for more than a decade and for the Hungarians of Transcarpathia to regain all their cultural, linguistic, administrative, and higher education rights, so that they may once again become equal and respected citizens of Ukraine,” Magyar mentioned.

“If we can resolve these issues, we can certainly open a new chapter in Ukrainian-Hungarian bilateral relations,” he added.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)