Toroczkai: If one day there is no Ukraine, it may even be possible for Transcarpathia to be united with Hungary through a referendum

Speaking over the weekend at his party's annual meeting, while evaluating the year behind, László Toroczkai, President of the far right Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland) party said that if Ukraine were to cease to be a state as a consequence of the war, Mi Hazánk would be the only party in Hungary that would lay claim to Transcarpathia. On Monday evening, Toroczkai was a guest on ATV's Egyenes beszéd programme, where he explained in more detail what he meant by this.

Toroczkai said that in a referendum held in 1991, when today's Ukraine was created, it was decided that Transcarpathia should have the right to self-determination, and within that, the district of Berehove should be granted Hungarian territorial autonomy. He said that the Kyiv government has not abided by this, and the Mi Hazánk leader also criticised the fact that neither Prime Minister Viktor Orbán nor Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó have ever mentioned this.

Toroczkai believes that one of the possible scenarios of the war is that Ukraine will be left on its own and lose its ability to survive. In his opinion, even now only the European Union and the United States are keeping it alive, and if a political change were to occur in these places, for example if the United States were to get a new president, or a far-right party, the AfD, were to win in Germany, then aid might dry up and Ukraine would quickly lose the war. In such a case, according to Toroczkai, as an autonomous region, Transcarpathia could ask Hungary for the status of a protectorate, similarly to what South Tyrol did with Austria. "And it is even possible, if there is no Ukraine, that one day Transcarpathia will be united with Hungary by way of a referendum, but that is obviously a matter for the future," the party leader said.

Toroczkai also considers it possible that if Ukraine were to lose the war, then Russian President Vladimir Putin would be the one to negotiate with about Transcarpathia, but he noted that we are not there yet.

ATV's presenter Györgyi Szöllősi asked by what right Toroczkai would lay claim to Transcarpathia, where only 6-10 percent of the population was Hungarian, with many of them having already fled.

"Based on the opinion of the people of Transcarpathia, and as I said, this could only happen through peaceful means. There was no Hungarian majority in Transcarpathia at the time of the 1991 referendum either, as a matter of fact. In spite of this, 80 percent of the population of Transcarpathia – an absolute majority – voted for self-determination with Hungarian territorial autonomy being part of it back then," Toroczkai replied.