Hungary’s Orban taunts Romania, sharpening dispute on ethnicity

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban started off one of his main speeches of the year with a stinging series of taunts against Romania, deepening a dispute over Transylvania and the ethnic Hungarians living there.

Orban, addressing his supporters at an annual retreat in Baile Tusnad, Romania, on July 22, said he had received a note from the government in Bucharest asking him to avoid certain themes regarding Romania’s national symbols and territory, Bloomberg reports.

“We never claimed these were Romanian territorial units,” Orban said of Transylvania in a series of quips about Romania.

The Romanian government is preparing a response, a spokesman said when contacted by phone by Bloomberg.