President Ader: 2014 year of elections, anniversaries

(MTI) – For Hungarians 2014 will be a year of elections and important anniversaries, President Janos Ader said in an address to foreign ambassadors accredited to Hungary, on Monday evening.

In 2014, Hungary will continue its efforts to promote “international cooperation based on mutual respect, good neighbourly relations, reinforced Euro-Atlantic alliances, and completion of universal human and civic rights”, Ader said before the ambassadors at the Palac of Arts.

This year, Hungary would mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, and the 70th anniversary of the Holocaust. Concerning the latter, the President warned that “honest people will not side with genocide, segregation, or xenophobia”. “The only ethical approach for honest people is to respect life and human dignity,” he added.

Ader noted that Hungary would also celebrate the 25th anniversary of the political regime change, of “the start of a peaceful transformation of our political institutions”, a process which eventually lead to the reunification of a “Europe torn in two parts”.

The political changes have brought about a new age of “freedom, democracy, and cooperation” in which “Hungarians will freely decide about their future and their parliament for the seventh time, elect deputies to the European Parliament for the third time, and select municipal officials at the local elections in the autumn,” Ader said.

Photo: MTI – László Beliczay

Source: http://hungarymatters.hu/