The leader of Romania’s ethnic Hungarian party on Thursday insisted that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban “was not a racist” and comments he made that triggered international outrage had been taken out of context.
More than one month after Mr Orban made a controversial speech where he talked about ‘mixed race’, his ally in Romania, Kelemen Hunor, said he refused to be made responsible for the comments.
On July 23, Orban told an audience of thousands in central Romania: „We move, we work elsewhere, we mix within Europe, but we don’t want to be a mixed race,” a „multi-ethnic” people who would mix with „non-Europeans.”
Hunor’s Alliance of Democratic Hungarians is a junior partner in Romania’s pro-Europe coalition. President Klaus Iohannis rebuked the Hungarian leader and called on Hunor to clarify the party’s position soon after the speech.
Still, the Romanian president said he did not want to create a political crisis from the situation as it would be counterproductive.
Mr Hunor on Thursday denied defending the Hungarian leader and claimed that even Orban acknowledged making a mistake “he makes mistakes,” he said. “It was an interpretable text, an interpretable phrase,” he said. “Like anyone, Orban has qualities and defects.”
“I know him personally and you can say anything about him, but you can’t say he’s racist.”
Romania’s ethnic Hungarian community of 1.2 million receive funding and grants from the Hungarian government and most communities tune into Hungarian media from Budapest.
