CROATIAN Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic has recently been using his public appearances in order to defend the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban from well-founded media criticism of his provocations towards Croatia through claiming Croatian territory.
Yesterday, in his interview for Nova TV, Plenkovic justified the Hungarian nationalist state policy and Orban's behavior. According to Plenkovic, it was all a misunderstanding.
Plenkovic: Orban explained everything, there was a misinterpretation
"Orban clarified things. Firstly, there was a misinterpretation. Trianon was a very difficult moment in history for Hungarians. Everything they say at their commemorations has a sort of a national dimension. They quoted a poem that reads "To the sea, Hungarians!" and not that Rijeka was Hungarian territory. There are no claims of Croatian territory, and I have made it known that such interpretations create difficulties in the relationship between our countries. We do not want these problems. He denied having any pretensions towards Croatian territory based on some historical aspirations. That is not the case here," Plenkovic said.
When asked why he was so understanding when it comes to Hungarian provocations while he's at the same time always criticizing Serbian provocations, Plenkovic stated that his government always has the same criteria in protecting national interests.
Plenković is understanding when it comes to Hungarian historical traumas, but not when it comes to anyone else's history
The latter is clearly not true, seeing that the government regularly fiercely reacts to provocations from Serbia without mentioning, for example, that Operation Storm was a "difficult moment in the country's history."
It is also important to mention that while Plenkovic has a lot of understanding for Hungarian historical traumas, he had no issues with his close associate Gordan Jandrokovic, the Parliament Speaker, participating in the organization of the Mass for Bleiburg in Sarajevo, the city where Ustashas killed more than 10 thousand people during World War II. Clearly, Plenkovic thinks some historical traumas are more important than others, and the Hungarian traumas are the most important.
As for the Trianon Agreement, which Plenkovic describes as a difficult moment for the Hungarians, it is worth recalling that Hungary de facto started the First World War as part of Austro-Hungary and after the war was lost, parts of the failed dual monarchy were divided among other states. In most of these territories that Orban now mourns, Hungarians were not the majority population, and in some of them, there were no Hungarians at all.
Plenkovic: We have fully resolved this issue
In any case, the Croatian Prime Minister had the same apologetic tone during the government session yesterday.
"Hungary has no territorial claims against Croatia. He said that those interpretations were incorrect and that he did not agree with them," Plenkovic says when asked about Orban.
Plenkovic added he had told Orban that Croatia was protecting its interests and wanted no part in discussions pertaining to territory. "We have fully resolved this issue," he said.
At the same time, Prime Minister Plenkovic said nothing about the attack by Orban's foreign minister on the Croatian media. Instead of defending media freedom in Croatia, he sided with the Hungarian Prime Minister and government.