Ethnic leaders voice support for Hungarian government’s nation policy

Leaders of Hungarian parties in neighbouring countries have voiced support for the Hungarian government’s policies aimed at helping ethnic kin retain their national identity and prosper in their homelands.

Speaking at a roundtable at the Bálványos Summer University in Romania’s Baile Tusnad (Tusnádfürdő) on Friday, László Brenzovics, head of Ukraine’s ethnic Hungarian KMKSZ party, said that

Hungary’s solidarity was instrumental in the survival of his community “amid the Ukrainian state’s anti-Hungarian attacks, efforts to curb education rights and incite hatred against the Hungarian minority”.

István Pásztor, head of Serbia‘s VMSZ party, highlighted the Hungarian government’s economic programme aimed at supporting ethnic Hungarian businesses in Vojvodina province, and said that some 11,000 entrepreneurs had benefitted from the scheme in the past two and a half years.

Ferenc Horváth, the head of Slovenia’s Hungarian community, referred to the same economic programme as well as a Hungarian kindergarten scheme, and said that

Hungarians in Slovenia have “for the first time in 100 years seen that being Hungarian is not a disadvantage but a good thing”.

Slovakia’s MKP party was represented by chairman József Menyhárt, who highlighted the Hungarian government’s scheme designed to save small Hungarian schools from closure. He also announced that his party would field a candidate for Slovakia’s presidential election in the autumn.

Róbert Jankovics, head of Croatia‘s HMDK party, said that funds from Hungary had been instrumental in improving his community’s cultural institutions. He added that Hungarian farmers in Croatia had benefitted from a total one billion forints in grants from the Hungarian economic programme.

Romanian senator Barna Tánczos, who represented the RMDSZ party, said that

Hungary’s diplomatic assistance was very important at a time of recent Romanian court rulings “stigmatising the whole community as terrorists”.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI