Did Prime Minister Viktor Orban say on public radio that he hoped to reclaim a part of Ukraine for Hungary? No, that's not true: Orban did not claim any territory for Hungary. In the interview, he said a part of Ukraine is an ancient Hungarian land that now belongs to Ukraine.
The fabricated quote appeared in a video on TikTok (archived here) which was published by @tordadavid on May 7, 2023. In it, the author claimed that the Prime Minister said:
A part of Ukraine is ancient Hungarian land which belongs to Ukraine now, but I hope not for long.
And added:
The statement of Viktor Orban schocked the world. According to the Prime Minister, we will have a new world order by 2030.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu May 11 17:11:50 2023 UTC)
In his regular interview with Radio Kossuth on May 5, 2023, PM Viktor Orban said:
Hungarians are living there [in Ukraine] too. A part of Ukraine is an ancient Hungarian land which belongs to Ukraine now. And Hungarians are an indigenous community there, they didn't migrate, it wasn't the wind that blew them there, they were always living there. That's their land and home. And they are dying in the war too. When Ukraine suffers Hungarians living there suffer too.
He didn't say that he hoped the region known as Transcarpathia would rejoin Hungary soon, and he didn't mention any other territorial claims during the interview. The unedited Radio Kossuth interview is available on this website and on the government's YouTube channel.
