“Schools are closed, languages are banned”: leaders of the Hungarian and Bulgarian parties have called for autonomy for national minorities in Ukraine

Leaders of the Hungarian parliamentary party Our Homeland (Mi Hazánk), László Toroczkai, and the Bulgarian party Revival (Vazrazhdane), Kostadin Kostadinov, together with Members of the European Parliament from these countries, Zsuzsanna Borvendég and Stanislav Stoyanov, have sent an open letter to Donald Trump asking him to protect the rights of all national minorities in Ukraine.

László Toroczkai published the text of the appeal on his social media.

“We have carefully studied your peace plan and taken note of the issue of the cultural and linguistic rights of Russians in Ukraine, which you consider fair to address. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that Ukraine has historically been home not only to Ukrainians and Russians, but also to longstanding and sizable Bulgarian, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak and Serbian communities. All of them have lived in specific territories long before Ukraine’s independence,” the deputies emphasized.

According to them, in recent years the Kyiv authorities have systematically infringed upon the basic cultural, linguistic, and economic rights of national minorities. Under the guidance of Soros-funded structures, minority schools in Ukraine have been closed, restrictions have been introduced on the use of their languages in the public sphere and business, and forced Ukrainization is being carried out.

“In the last three years, ethnic Bulgarians, Hungarians, Poles, Romanians, Slovaks, and Serbs have been mobilized to fight for a state that largely ignores their fundamental rights,” the authors of the letter stated.

In their appeal, they asked Trump to include the issue of restoring the rights of European national minorities in Ukraine on the agenda of the upcoming peace talks. The deputies recalled that Ukraine declares its intention to join the EU, and therefore is obliged to ensure that national minorities receive the full range of rights — up to and including cultural and administrative autonomy, as provided for by EU norms and the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, of which Ukraine is a party.

Earlier, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó demanded that Kyiv fully restore the lost rights of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia.