VZCZCXYZ0001
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHUP #0206 0770933
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 180933Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY BUDAPEST
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3990
INFO RUEHBW/AMEMBASSY BELGRADE PRIORITY 017
RUEHSL/AMEMBASSY BRATISLAVA PRIORITY 1051
RUEHBM/AMEMBASSY BUCHAREST PRIORITY 1444
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO PRIORITY 0460
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L BUDAPEST 000206 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CE JAMIE LAMORE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/15/2019 
TAGS: PREL RM HU
SUBJECT: TRAVEL PLANS GONE AWRY - PRESIDENT SOLYOM'S VISIT 
TO ROMANIA 
 
REF: A. 08 BUDAPEST 1216 
     ¶B. MARTINSON-LAMORE EMAIL MARCH 13 
 
Classified By: Acting P/E Counselor Jon Martinson, reasons 1.4 (b,d) 
 
¶1. (U) This is Embassy Budapest/Embassy Bucharest coordinated 
cable. 
 
¶2. (U) Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom, a staunch advocate 
of ethnic Hungarians living in neighboring countries, faced 
significant diplomatic difficulties while searching for 
opportunities to commemorate Hungary's 1848 revolution and 
war of independence on March 15. 
 
¶3. (U) Initially planning to celebrate this important 
Hungarian national holiday in Serbia's Voivojdina region, 
Solyom altered his schedule after Serbian President Tadic 
objected to the planned three-day visit and the Hungarian 
organization that had invited Solyom subsequently canceled 
the visit.  Turning to Romania, Solyom then planned to fly 
via a Hungarian military aircraft to the Transylvania city of 
Targu Mures (Marosvasarhely) on March 15, to celebrate with 
the ethnic Hungarian community.  However, on March 12, 
Romanian authorities expressed concern via a diplomatic note 
to the Hungarian Ambassador in Bucharest that "the visit 
would send a wrong signal for bilateral relations" and 
canceled flight clearance for the President's aircraft. 
(Note.  Press reporting states Romanian authorities were 
afraid that Solyom would talk about autonomy for ethnic 
Hungarians in Transylvania and that "could have had an 
adverse impact on incumbent Romanian President Basescu's 
campaign for re-election later this year who wants to obtain 
the votes of extremists there."  End note.)  As a result of 
the Romanian Government's landing permit revocation, Solyom 
traveled to the Transylvania region by car on March 14, laid 
a wreath at a memorial site, and returned to Budapest the 
same day. 
 
¶4. (U) While Solyom considered the Romanian's refusal to 
grant flight clearance an "unfriendly" action, on March 13, 
Hungarian MFA Senior State Secretary Marta Fekszi responded 
to a press inquiry, commenting that "it is inexplicable and 
we will seek an explanation from the Romanian Ambassador to 
Budapest."  She stated that "there is no question in my mind 
that if a Hungarian citizen wants to visit Romania then he 
should be able to." 
 
¶5. (C) Embassy Bucharest comment:  It's unclear whether there 
actually was a dip note fro the Romanians to the Hungarians 
expressing concern about the visit.  UDMR leader Marco Bela 
made that claim in press comments, but FM Diaconescu denied 
this, and challenged Bela "show me the note".  The Romanian 
government line, including from Transportation Minister 
Berceanu, is that no/no official request for flight clearance 
for President Solyom's military aircraft was formally 
conveyed to the Romanian side.  Media have deplored the 
incident as an example of politicians playing the 
Hungarian-bashing card to win over voters from the 
extreme-right Greater Romania Party (which recently lost its 
parliamentary representation in the November elections.) 
 
¶6. (C) Embassy Budapest comment.  During his three and a half 
year tenure, President Solyom has spared no effort to 
emphatically represent the rights of ethnic Hungarians during 
frequent visits to neighboring countries with ethnic 
Hungarian populations.  Fidesz President Viktor Orban is also 
a frequent visitor to the Transylvania region, more recently 
in his role as the European Peoples' Party Vice President, to 
support the campaign of ethnic Hungarians in the upcoming 
European parliament elections later this spring.  Since the 
political changes of 1990, successive Hungarian governments 
continue to wrestle with how best to address the concerns of 
ethnic Hungarians "beyond the borders."  Most recently, 
Slovak/Hungarian relations have made the front pages (ref A), 
but the diplomatic fracas over Solyom's visit has the 
potential to turn up the heat on what has been relatively 
good Romanian/Hungarian cooperation.  End Comment. 
Foley