Hungary is opening special offices in several countries

Hungary is opening special offices for members of the Hungarian diaspora looking to settle temporarily or permanently in Hungary, Speaker of Parliament László Kövér said in an interview with business website azuzlet.hu on Friday.

Kövér said it was important for Hungarians to feel at home in Hungary, wherever they may live in the world, and know that they can always return home. The new offices will be linked to the existing government windows and act as one-stop shops for all public administration concerning resettlement in Hungary, Kövér said.

The speaker said Hungary was now at a point where it was in constant contact with Hungarian diaspora organisations and involving them in the decisions of the Hungarian Diaspora Council. Hungary is carrying on with its measures supporting the unification of the nation, the speaker said. He hailed the success of the government’s scheme aimed at supporting ethnic Hungarian businesses across the Carpathian Basin, saying that decision-makers in Hungary’s neighbours were now recognising that the programme was also beneficial to the local economy.

The unification of the nation is a strategic goal, Kövér said, adding however that the focus at the moment was not on launching new major investment projects but rather on preserving the existing achievements and ensuring the uninterrupted operation of the institutional system established in ethnic Hungarian communities. Just as during the pandemic, the government has kept all its programmes supporting Hungarians abroad going amid the difficult economic situation caused by the sanctions imposed in connection with the war in Ukraine, the speaker said. “In fact, there are areas in which we are increasing support for Hungarians abroad,” he added. Detailing the achievements of economic development programmes, Kövér said more than 60,000 businesses had received subsidies, adding that most of the people employed by these companies are Hungarian.

No illusions about Europe, but Hungary won’t abandon European ideals

Kövér told a gathering in western Hungary on Saturday that Hungarians no longer harboured any illusions about Europe, “though neither are we willing to abandon our European ideals”. Celebrating the anniversary of the consecration of a chapel in the village of Pördefölde, Kövér said Hungarians had abandoned their communist illusions of the state providing life’s solutions, “though we’ll never give up the ideal of the state that serves the Hungarian people.”

Linking the idea of Europe to “the eternal heavenly ideal” of Jesus Christ, Kover spoke of “a Europe that offers everyone freedom, security, prosperity and fairness”. In the second half of the twentieth century, he added, communism sought to “wrench this ideal of Europe away from us”. Kover said Hungarians wanted an independent and just Hungarian state that served and protected the nation, “helping the homeland prosper and grow throughout the Carpathian Basin”.

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