Prime Minister Viktor Orbán offered the government’s help to László Brenzovics, President of the Transcarpathian Hungarian Cultural Association (KMKSZ) after the organisation’s head office in Ungvár (Uzhhorod) was set on fire in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
On his Facebook account the Prime Minister posted a telephone conversation he made on the way to the Wednesday cabinet meeting. In the conversation he enquired, inter alia, about the well-being of people and the state of the building, and informed the President of KMKSZ that the topic would feature on the cabinet meeting’s agenda.
He also asked what they needed in Transcarpathia: financial assistance, help with the renovation works or anything else.
Mr Orbán confirmed in the conversation that the organisation and Hungarians living in Transcarpathia can rely on the Hungarian government.
In the early hours of Tuesday meeting, as shown in the surveillance camera footage that has been released since, a person wearing a hooded jacket placed an explosive device on one of the windowsills of the Transcarpathian Hungarian Cultural Association’s head office building which was activated seven minutes after his departure. Due to the fire that broke out in consequence of the powerful explosion, three rooms on the ground floor of the Hungarian organisation’s office burnt out.
The arson attack was condemned, among others, by the government and several other political actors, including Fidesz, LMP, MSZP, Párbeszéd and Jobbik, as well as by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and Hennadiy Moskal, Governor of Transcarpathia.