Hungarys Magyar Proposes Zelenskyy Meeting on Ethnic Rights

Hungary's election winner Péter Magyar proposed a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in early June to address the rights of ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine's western Transcarpathia region, signaling a potential thaw in bilateral relations after years of tension.

Magyar, whose centre-right Tisza party secured 141 of 199 parliamentary seats in the April 12 election, defeated longtime Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after 16 years in office. The victory grants Magyar a constitutional majority, enabling him to take office on May 9 and reverse some of Orbán's policies. In a social media post on April 28, following talks with Berehove's mayor Zoltan Babjak in Budapest, Magyar suggested holding the meeting in the Ukrainian border town, where ethnic Hungarians form a majority.

"The purpose of the meeting is to help improve the situation of Hungarians in Transcarpathia and enable them to remain in their homeland," Magyar said. He called for Ukraine to lift legal restrictions in place for over a decade, restoring full cultural, linguistic, administrative and higher education rights to the community of about 150,000 ethnic Hungarians. Tensions escalated in 2017 when Ukraine...