Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán arrived on Thursday evening in Tusnádfürdő (Băile Tușnad), Transylvania, Romania, where he will address the 33rd annual Bálványos Summer Free University and Student Camp, commonly known as Tusványos, on Saturday morning. Before that, however, Orbán had an important meeting with Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu in Bucharest on Friday morning, according to Bertalan Havasi, the Prime Minister’s press chief.
According to the statement, the two leaders discussed current issues of Hungarian–Romanian bilateral relations. Orbán also assured his interlocutor that Hungary, as rotating president of the EU Council, will put the
issue of Romania’s full Schengen accession on the agenda in the autumn,
Havasi said.
After the meeting, Marcel Ciolacu reported the results in a Facebook post. He wrote that he and Viktor Orbán agreed on bilateral cooperation on issues of mutual interest, particularly regarding Central-Eastern European regional trade along the Budapest–Bucharest railway line. ‘Our trade totals some €13 billion, and we agreed with our Hungarian counterpart that there are still untapped opportunities,’ Ciolacu underlined.
The Romanian PM also thanked Orbán for his support of Romania’s full Schengen membership during Hungary’s EU Presidency.
Viktor Orbán’s visit to Romania did not please everyone, Index noted. Mihai Tirnoveanu, leader of the Romanian nationalist organization National Road, complained that the Hungarian PM posted a photo on his Facebook page after his arrival on Thursday evening, showing him in a hussar’s hat. ‘The Hungarian Hussars fought against Avram Iancu in 1848 and killed Romanian peasants, then came under the command of the Austro–Hungarian Monarchy’s army, fighting with them in the First World War for Greater Hungary and in 1919, when the Romanian army crushed the Bolshevik Hungarian troops in Transylvania, among other battles,’ he wrote.
Tirnoveanu was one of the
organizers of last year’s Romanian nationalist demonstration in Tusnádfürdő,
but it is likely that a similar event won’t happen this year, according to Tirnoveanu’s Facebook post. He wrote that heavy security checks will precede Viktor Orbán’s speech. ‘Tusnádfürdő will be a fortress; not even a bird will be allowed to fly over,’ he stated.
Mihai Tirnoveanu has already organized several anti-Hungarian protests. Last April, he and dozens of Romanian nationalists ‘greeted’ former President of the Republic Katalin Novák with a national flag and anti-Hungarian chants at the unveiling of the Ferenc Kölcsey statue in Nagykároly. The event was secured by police and gendarmes. In September of the same year, Tirnoveanu also demonstrated against the statue of Áron Gábor in Târgu Mureş, and spoke out against the Szekler flag on some houses.
Related articles:
