Katalin Szili was denied the right to wreathe the statue of Petőfi in Münkacsi Castle, which is part of the series of extremely anti-Hungarian Ukrainian actions of recent days. During his visit to Transcarpathia, the prime minister's representative assured our national brothers of the motherland's continued support.

An act amounting to a political atrocity accompanied Katalin Szili's journey from the Day of Hungarian Culture to Transcarpathia. As can be seen from the coverage of the local press, the prime minister's agent wanted to lay a wreath on the statue of Sándor Petőfi in the Münkacsi castle, but the management of the museum did not allow this without any justification.

This fits into the series of events of the last few days, when Hungarian flags and inscriptions were removed in the Munkács district, and the employment contract of the well-respected director of the Hungarian-language school, István Schink, was terminated with immediate effect, said Katalin Szili after the event.

Katalin Szili, in her keynote speech at the Beregszász Intellectual Forum 2023 – Transcarpathian Hungarians in the Shadow of the War conference organized as part of the Hungarian Culture Day program series, thanked our national brothers for their support and efforts to preserve our language, identity, and culture.

In connection with the migration crisis of recent years, the coronavirus pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war, he said that it was as if time had stopped in the world. Ukraine signed an association agreement with the European Union in September 2017. However, after that, a series of laws came to light that increasingly restrict the rights of national minorities living in the country, including the most recently adopted law on national minorities, the Prime Minister's representative reminded.

In his presentation, Ferenc Kalmár, ministerial commissioner responsible for the development of Hungary's neighborhood policy, emphasized that the Transcarpathians are the most endangered community due to the war raging in Ukraine. According to him, the new national minority law in Kyiv represents a step back compared to the previous legislation, and its main goal is to integrate the communities into the majority society.

Source: Magyar Hírlap

Photo: János Nemes / MTI