Urban makes a fuss with the Great Hungary Sash

Hungarian right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban has had to endure accusations of historical reshuffle because he wore the “Greater Hungary scarf” at a football match.

The shawl shows the borders of the former Kingdom of Hungary, which included the regions of today’s Austria, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, and Ukraine, among others. So the appearance caused criticism in many countries. Orban wore the scarf during the Hungary-Greece match yesterday. Then he posted a picture of her himself on Instagram.

The immediate outcry over Orbán’s scarf came from Romania, where the largest Hungarian minority lives today. Ukraine’s foreign ministry immediately demanded an “apology” and clarification that there were no Hungarian claims to Ukrainian territory.

Anger of greens and SPÖ

In Austria, the SPÖ and the Green Party reacted with harsh criticism. SPÖ’s spokesperson for Europe, Jörg Lichtfried, asked Foreign Minister Aleksander Schallenberg (ÖVP) to recall the Hungarian ambassador. The Greens demanded an immediate apology from Orban and the Hungarian ambassador to Austria.

Nice words from Croatia

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said he had not seen the footage. “I can’t handle other people’s scarves,” the Croatian news agency Hina quoted him as saying.

President Zoran Milanović advised against an official reaction from Zagreb. “I have to laugh about that. His ambitions in Croatia are limited to cruising the Adriatic Sea for a month in August and we meet for dinner,” Milanovic said, referring to Orban. “No special attention should be paid to that. If you look at the neighbors we have Well, that’s the best.”