The must-have newsletter about Hungary

MI HAZÁNK CALLS ON GOVT TO BRING TROOPS HOME FROM KOSOVO

 

Radical opposition Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland) called on the government to bring Hungary’s soldiers home from Kosovo and make public the number of troops serving abroad as well as the costs of the missions. Party lawmaker Előd Novák told a press conference on Wednesday that “while the United States incites tensions against pro-Russia Serbs and is arming Kosovo Albanians”, the injured Hungarian troops had been “being used as shields by the US” in Monday’s clashes between NATO peacekeepers and protesters in Kosovo.
Since Montenegro, a country with a majority Serb population, could potentially veto joint NATO defence in the event of a potential attack by the Serbian army, it is clear that there is no military solution to the situation, the lawmaker said after a closed-door meeting of parliament’s defence and law enforcement committee. Political pressure is needed to resolve the situation in Kosovo, he added.
Hungary’s obligations under the North Atlantic Treaty only require it to help defend a member state that is attacked, but because of the “overzealousness” of the governments that have been in power so far, Hungary has been involved in several foreign invasions, including the “abject failure that was Afghanistan”, the lawmaker said. This, rather than the defence of the homeland, has also been the main consideration when it comes to military developments, he added.