Budapest summons Slovak ambassador over Kačer's comments

The Hungarian Foreign Affairs Ministry on Wednesday summoned the Slovak ambassador to the country over Slovak Foreign Affairs Minister Rastislav Kacer's recent remarks on Budapest's potential territorial claims on Slovakia, the Slovak correspondent in Hungary learnt from news outlet 24.hu in the evening of the same day. "If Vladimir Putin was more successful and Russia was at Slovakia's doorstep in the east, I think that we would be facing such claims directly today, unfortunately," said Kacer in a TV debate on Tuesday when asked whether Hungary could make territorial claims on Slovakia in the next few years. Hungarian state secretary Tamas Menczer, who is responsible for bilateral relations at the Foreign Ministry, stated on Facebook on Wednesday that Europe is facing great challenges, and hence sensible politicians are needed, adding that the incumbent Slovak foreign affairs minister is not one of them. "Minister Kacer is basically attacking Hungary because we support peace and oppose sanctions. We aren't going to change that, even if minister Kacer doesn't like it. Today I summoned the Slovak ambassador in Budapest to the Foreign Affairs Ministry and told him that Rastislav Kacer's statements are unacceptable and nonsensical lies," wrote Menczer. OLaNO leader Igor Matovic and MP Gyorgy Gyimesi called on Interim Foreign Affairs Minister Rastislav Kacer to apologise for his statements. Rastislav Káčer responded and said that he would not apologize to anyone. "I am not criticising the Hungarians. I myself have very good Hungarian roots, I lived in Hungary for five years, elég jól értek magyarul, I like Hungarians. This is not a conflict of nations. It is a criticism of a particular policy. The one that made the leader of the struggle for democracy in the region in the early 1990s a black hole on the European political map and a Trojan horse for Putin's interests in Europe. Slovaks and Hungarians have lived together for a thousand years, and they will continue to do so. I believe in harmony," Káčer noted.
Source: TASR