Hungarian politicians mark August 20 national holiday

Hungary’s national holidays, regardless of whether they commemorate events from decades or centuries ago, send a message of unity, President Janos Ader said on Friday at a celebration of Hungary’s St. Stephen’s Day national holiday.

The past year and a half made it difficult for Hungarians to commemorate their national holidays together, as many suffered serious losses because of the pandemic, which has claimed more than 30,000 lives, Áder said in his speech at a swearing-in ceremony of new officers in Kossuth Square.

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“Under the siege of the pandemic, when we had to endure more and more trials every day, when we had to live from one wave to the next, the liberated joy of celebration seemed more than a light year away,” the president said.

“During this time we could hardly see ourselves as those who would carry on the glorious past,” Áder said. “We far more resembled our ancestors who had experienced so much misfortune.”

The president added, however, that although Hungarians “had to give up so much in the past several months”, they had also come to “recognise all the things that we can hold onto”.

“It turned out that there is something beyond the ultimate limit of fear and pain that pulls us back from the edge of the vortex, . that we have strength in reserve within ourselves and in the community,” he said. “It turned out that we can be selfless, helpful, attentive and disciplined, and that we can be patient, that we can adapt and pay attention.”

Áder urged the new soldiers taking their oaths to see not just the heroes of the past, but also each other as role models. “And in all those who in the past months have shown us what loyalty and the service of the homeland is about.”

He said the pandemic had also proven that no task or form of service was too small.

The president’s speech and the oath-taking ceremony were preceded by the hoisting of the national flag by a ceremonial guard in front of Parliament.

Hungary one of Europe’s few ancient states

Hungary one of Europe’s few ancient statesHungary is one of the few ancient states of Europe, Gergely Gulyás, the prime minister’s chief of staff, said in a speech marking the August 20 national holiday, commemorating the founding of the state of Hungary in the year 1000 A.D. by St. Stephen, Hungary’s first Christian king.

Today there are hardly any ancient states in Europe similar to Hungary, a country that was capable of organising itself, establishing its own public administration and enacting laws more than a thousand years ago, Gulyás said at the commemoration event of the Prime Minister’s Office.

Associated with this was Hungary’s adoption of Christianity and the diocesan system which had served the country for almost a thousand years until the post-WWI Trianon peace treaty, he said.

The survival of the Hungarian state is strongly related to its decision to choose sovereignty and independence, Gulyás said. It was because King Stephen accepted the crown from the pope that Hungary was not forced to become anyone’s “vassal” and that there was no secular power ruling over it, he added.

The king’s decision to make Hungary a Christian country meant that the country could be independent and survive, he said.

Gulyás said the second half millennium of Hungary’s history had been about a series of freedom fights when it was rare that the Hungarian state could be free without any foreign power risking that freedom.

“Yet despite all this Hungary survived because even back then the nation was strong enough when the country was occupied by foreign powers,” Gulyás said.

Hungary managed to survive even as other nations fell or did not exist yet, he said.

This was why, Gulyás said, Hungary needed to take part in all of today’s debates in Europe with the confidence of a thousand-year-old state.

The independence of the Hungarian state also means that it has a responsible government, he said, adding that Hungary had managed to hold its own in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic over the past year and a half.

Gulyás said that because Hungary today had more than 11 million citizens, every decision needed to be looked at in terms of its effect on the nation as a whole.

Mayor: Hungary belongs in Europe

It should be made clear on St. Stephen’s Day that Hungary belongs in Europe and that is where it will stay, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said on Facebook on Friday, marking Hungary’s August 20 national holiday.

“Last year at this time we were starting to process the anxiety, hardship and pain of the months we had left behind and we thought that the most difficult days would soon be behind us and our lives would get back to normal,” Karácsony wrote.

“Back then we did not know that we would be facing a period that would be even more difficult than the one we had left behind,” he said.

“The losses of our loved ones, the economic crisis that changed the lives of hundreds of thousands and the clouds of inhumanity and division gathering over our heads brought about the need for change.”

“King St. Stephen’s legacy made it possible for us to say in Hungarian . that the foundation of a new state, the reestablishment of the state is necessary,” Karacsony said.

The purpose of the functioning of the Hungarian state has to be the creation of a more humane and a fairer country “which can only start from within us”, the mayor said.

“The rule of the overbearing few has split this country in two, but the state cannot be built on hate, stigmatisation and civil war rhetoric, only cooperation and compassion,” Karácsony said.

He said the state today was “creating scapegoats” instead of offering solutions and pitting one half of the country against the other.

Karácsony said a new state needed to be founded that would guarantee legal certainty, public safety and the opportunity for people to live dignified lives.

The mayor said the concept of a European Hungary was in danger, insisting that there was a threat “fueled by petty power plays” that Hungary could pull out of the European Union.

“Life outside Europe is one that no one can want for their children, he said.

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Source: MTI