The bridge with chains, lighting in yellow and blue photo: denes erdos / ap / profimedia
The Fidesz Party of the Hungarian Conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban reacted on Tuesday after Budapest's liberal mayor, Gergely Karacksony, illuminated a bridge over the Danube in the blue-yellow colors of the flag of Ukraine on the occasion of this country, reports MTI.
It is “scandalous” that Gergely Karacsony has approved the lighting of the bridge with chains in the Ukrainian national colors, “especially after the Ukrainian president threatened Hungary,” the Fidesz group from the General Council of the City Hall of Budapest said.
“What should a respectable mayor do when his own people is threatened and blackmailed by another country? Gergely Karacsony's response is that one of the most emblematic and symbolic bridges of our wonderful country, the bridge with chains, must be illuminated in the colors of that country,” said a Municipal Councilor from Fidesz.
“The bridge with chains does not have to be blue-yellow, but red, white and green”, the colors of the flag of Hungary, and “if someone attacks and threatens our people, we must defend Hungarian citizens, not to represent the Ukrainians,” said the same politician from Orban's party. He noted in the context that the Hungarian government has decided not to support the rapid accession of Ukraine to the EU, which, “rightly, is a sensitive issue for the Ukrainian President” Volodimir Zelenski.
Orban's party is even more indignant by the gesture of the Liberal Mayor, the more it comes after the supply of Russian oil to Hungary (and also to Slovakia) through the Drujba pipeline was stopped last week after two Ukrainian attacks on some infrastructures of the oil.
Relationships between Kyiv and Budapest, more and more tense
While the European Commission did not react to the protests of Hungary, the Ukrainian Minister Andrii Sîbiha suggested to the Hungarian government to complain to “his friends in Moscow”.
“You do not tell Ukraine's president what to do or say.” Contra harsh between Kyiv and Budapest, after a Ukrainian attack in Russia
At a press conference on August 24, President Volodimir Zelenski suggested that the future of the Drujba oil pipeline could depend on the position of Hungary on the accession of Ukraine to the European Union.
“I have always supported the friendship between Ukraine and Hungary,” Zelenski said. “The existence of the” Drujba “pipeline depends on the position of Hungary.”
Zelenski's statements aroused a harsh reaction from Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who accused Zelenski of threatening Hungary and sovereignty.
“We urge Volodimir Zelenski to cease threats to Hungary and not endanger our energy security,” Szijjarto said in a Facebook post.
From Kiev, the Ukrainian Minister Andrii Sîbiha responded to Szijjarto's comments urging Hungary to reduce his dependence on Russian energy, writes Kyiv Independent.
“There is no need to tell the Ukrainian president what to do or say when. He is the President of Ukraine, not Hungary,” Sîbiha wrote on X. “Hungary's energy security is in your hands,” he added.
