The party received 6% of votes during the 2022 Hungarian elections.
Toroczkai made the remarks on Saturday at his party’s annual conference in Budapest. He blamed “international financiers” for pressuring Ukraine into the war with Russia, a war he said would “destroy Europe and send the continent’s economy to the bottom,” Hungarian Index.hu reported.
Toroczkai also stated, “if Ukraine’s statehood ceases to exist due to the war, Mi Hazank will lay claim to Zakarpattia.”
This is not the first time the Mi Hazank leader has commented on Ukraine. Last year, he spoke about the need to prevent a new world war and claimed Ukraine had been sold to foreign investors. He also opposed Finland and Sweden joining NATO, fearing it would increase the chances of war with Russia.
Mi Hazank currently holds six seats in the Hungarian Parliament. Zakarpattia, located in western Ukraine, was part of the Austria-Hungary Empire until the 20th century. About 10% of the Zakarpattia population are ethnic Hungarians, but almost 90% are Ukrainians.
As was reported, Budapest sent troops to Ukraine’s border in February 2022, at the beginning of the Russian invasion, raising speculations that Hungary was posed to occupy Ukraine’s westernmost Zakarpattia Oblast immediately after Putin took Kyiv. However, the Hungarian expert András Rácz, who until recently worked for Hungary’s state Institute for Strategic and Defence Studies and is currently a Senior Fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations, said these speculations are groundless, saying that Hungary’s military presence was not meant for attacking Ukraine, but rather as part of a contingency plan in the event of a humanitarian crisis and massive refugee wave.
Expert explains what Hungary’s troops were really up to at Ukraine border when Russia struck
Zakarpattia proclaimed the independence of the “Carpathian statehood” in 1939 but was quickly occupied by the Hungarian army. It became part of the USSR after WWII.
The struggle for Carpatho-Ukraine (1938-1939), or how WWII started for Ukrainians
