Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made a series of taunts against Romania on Saturday, deepening a dispute over Transylvania and the ethnic Hungarians who live there.
Addressing supporters at an annual retreat in Baile Tusnad in central Romania, Orban said he’d received a note from the government in Bucharest asking him to avoid certain themes regarding Romania’s national symbols and territory.
“We never claimed these were Romanian territorial units,” Orban said of Transylvania at the start of what is his signature address each year.
The Romanian government is preparing a response to the comments, a spokesman said when contacted by Bloomberg News.
The European Union and NATO member countries have a history of tension over the more than 1 million ethnic Hungarians who live in neighboring Romania, many of whom can vote in Hungary’s elections and tend to support Orban.
Orban has also alienated other NATO allies by continuing to support Russian President Vladimir Putin after the invasion of Ukraine, and often relishes picking fights with neighbors and other EU peers.
At the same time, Hungary will support Romania’s accession to the Schengen travel area when it takes over the EU’s rotating presidency in July 2024, Orban said.
Romanian television channels showed a few dozen members of a nationalist association protesting against Orban’s presence in Baile Tusnad. They held Romanian flags and banners that read “One thing is eternal, Transylvania - Romanian land,” while being monitored by riot police.
In contrast to his remarks on Saturday, earlier in the week Orban had a surprise lunch with new Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who took up his post in June. It was the first high-level meeting between the neighbors’ top officials to take place in Romania for over a decade.
The meeting ended with a statement from the Romanian government that it wants to maintain “an open, positive and constructive approach” between the two countries, and with Orban tweeting a photo and a catchphrase from the movie Casablanca.
--With assistance from Irina Vilcu.
(Updates with context, protests throughout.)
