#felvidék might

[renegade-hierophant]

In Slovak and Croatian (and other languages) there's a difference between how Hungary is referred to before and after declarations of independence in 1918. In English and Hungarian this distinction is not made. In Hungarian they might say Greater Hungary (Nagy-Magyarország) for the kingdom before 1918.

We Slovaks consider Uhorsko as part of our history and as a kingdom that was ours as well. But when Hungarians say Slovakia is just Felvidék (Upland), to us it sounds a bit silly because Uhorsko, the country of which Slovakia was the upper country, does not exist anymore, so it makes no sense to call it that.

[best-habsburg-monarch]

Greetings, descendants!

We have been asked about our opinion on your appeasement gesture. To put it simply, we are grateful to everyone who voted for our queen, though we suspect our endorsement wasn't of much value considering most of the Habsburg-conscious electorate knows and cares for her far more than for the French queen regent and queen consort anyway. No matter. The antiking poll has only about a day to run its course, so we'll continue to hold it symbolically, but rest assured that we have no plans for the secession in the near future.

Even if Joseph II. wins the upcoming poll. Speaking of: there were plans to endorse Maria Theresa, and we are sure most of our electorate would prefer her, but for the sake of good relations with Felvidék, we decided against it. Instead, we'd like to cordially invite the local electorate onto our page @rulers-of-hungary-tournament where another round of elections is ongoing - including a match between some other guy and Louis II., that is, the husband of Maria, eventual governor of Habsburg Netherlands. Who we've been told was quite popular in this tournament, so.

We'd also like to kindly remind everyone that @best-romanov-monarch is holding a poll that noone seems to have showed up for? We hold no affection for the Romanovs, but the low numbers are just sad. We have no reason to endorse any of these people, but we've figured your dynasty might. After all, it features such people as Paul I. whose daughter was the only Romanov to ever marry a Habsburg, or Elizabeth I., who would've helped you people win the Seven Years War had it not been for her untimely death (and ascencion of Peter III., damn him). If you have any opinions on any of the contestants, mayhaps you could express them? (If for no other reason than because otherwise a person you as a dynasty might not have good relations with would win.)

-Duchess of Nyitra

Ah, as usual, we appease your demands and you are still never satisfied.

(but in all seriousness, if you are enjoying these polls, please go reblog and support other brackets. Please keep the fun going!)

[mariacallous]

Elsewhere, Poland continues to talk tough over preventing Ukrainian grain from flooding its market; radicalised Czech pensioners rise up, again; Slovak paediatricians to no longer take on shifts in children’s emergency rooms from next week.

Hungarian PM Viktor Orban did not make the international headlines with this year’s speech in Baile Tusnad in Romania, but he still managed to annoy neighbouring countries. This time Orban held back from using controversial expressions like the “illiberal state” (2014) or “mixed races” (2022), preferring to mainly speculate on the rise of China and how the rivalry between the US and China could affect the world and, in particular, Hungary. But away from the meat of the speech and in remarks afterwards, he managed to raise some eyebrows in countries which he might need in the future as potential allies.

Orban revealed that in advance he had received a “demarche” – a written note from the Romanian Foreign Ministry – requesting that he avoid certain topics in his speech, like national symbols, collective minority rights and “non-existent administrative areas” in Romania. “I have thought hard about what they could mean by that. I think they mean Transylvania and Szeklerland, but we have never claimed that these are Romanian administrative areas,” Orban said at the beginning of his speech. The Hungarian ambassador in Bucharest was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Monday where it was explained this is not exactly the direction in which bilateral relations should be heading.

The country’s ambassador in Bratislava was also summoned. Acting Slovak PM Ludovit Odor, an ethnic Hungarian himself, called Orban’s remarks about Slovakia being a separated land of Hungary unacceptable, criticising his use of the terms “breakaway regions” and referring to Slovakia as “Felvidék”, which used to be the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary and is home to some 450,000 ethnic Hungarians. “Czechoslovakia and later Slovakia or Hungary are equally successor states of Austria-Hungary. Nothing could have been broken away from the present-day Hungary,” the Slovak Foreign Ministry wrote, warning that casting doubt on the territorial integrity of the country would not be tolerated. In remarks after his speech, Orban also slammed the Hungarian minority in Slovakia for its failure to win seats in the Slovak parliament and help the Hungarian nation. Odor said such statements harm bilateral relations. Many other Slovak politicians also denounced Orban’s comments, including even Smer leader Robert Fico and Slovak National Party leader Andrej Danko, who have in the past expressed admiration for Orban’s way of doing politics. Conversely, Krisztian Forro, leader of Aliancia, a Hungarian minority party, promised Orban his party would win seats in the upcoming September election. This seems unlikely if opinion polls are to be believed. Although Slovak-Hungarian relations are significantly better than before 2010, this is not the first time in recent memory that Hungary has upset Slovakia.

Orban also had a pop at the Czechs, accusing the government there of having abandoned the V4 to join the ranks of EU “federalists”. Czech PM Petr Fiala retorted by underscoring that Czechia remains sovereign and that his government defends its national interests: “We decide for ourselves what we promote, support or want to change in the EU.” Interior Minister Vit Rakusan chimed in to claim that Czechia’s EU approach has “evolved”, adding the barb that Prague does not simply seek subsidies while avoiding scrutiny.

In news nearer to home, Hungary’s opposition parties garnered enough signatures to request the parliamentary speaker convene an extraordinary session for Monday, July 31. One of the six topics to be discussed would be ratification of Sweden’s NATO accession, which the governing Fidesz party has been delaying for a year. The speaker, arch-conservative Laszlo Kover, is obliged to convene the session, but most commentators predict Fidesz will simply boycott it; this would be the 17th time the opposition has convened a special session, but none were attended by Fidesz MPs. The chairman of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Zsolt Nemeth, said earlier there is no urgency for ratification, despite Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s volte-face to support Sweden’s at the NATO Summit in Vilnius two weeks ago, as the Turkish parliament will only start debating the issue in the autumn. Hungary will hold its first regular parliamentary session in September.