Deputy PM: Govt backs ethnic kin’s autonomy endeavours

(MTI) – The Hungarian government “fully backs” the autonomy endeavours of Hungarian communities abroad, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen said on Monday.

The government supports all autonomy concepts developed by communities for their own survival, Semjen told the annual meeting of diplomatic mission leaders in Budapest.

These communities have never demanded anything for which there is no precedent in Europe, he said.

“We are neither second-class citizens, nor a second-class people,” Semjen said, stressing the need to reject accusations of extremism in autonomy issues made against Hungary.

The deputy prime minister noted that over the past three and a half years, around 610,000 ethnic Hungarians had applied for Hungarian citizenship under a fast-track procedure. If the current trend sustains, the government will be able to fulfil its plan of adding one million to the community of Hungarian citizens by 2018, he said.

Photo: MTI – Szilard Koszticsak

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters