A recent football match between Hungary and Greece – two countries that didn’t even qualify for the World Cup – would have been quickly forgotten were it not for the sartorial choices made by one of the spectators. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán was in attendance, sporting a scarf with a provocative design that has triggered tensions with other world leaders.
The scarf depicted a map of Hungary but with the borders it had before the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, the peace agreement that ended the first world war. As part of this agreement, Hungary ceded land to neighbours Austria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine.
In modern times, the image of Hungary with its pre-Trianon borders intact has been mobilised by right-wing Hungarian nationalists and named “Greater Hungary”. Subscribers to this “irredentist” ideology (advocating restoration of territory) believe Hungary should reclaim the land it feels was wrongfully taken via Trianon.
