Fidesz group leader: Ethnic Hungarians deserve say in nation’s key issues

Fidesz group leader Gergely Gulyás in a Monday interview to Transylvanian newspaper Kronika said ethnic Hungarians must be guaranteed the right to have a say in vital issues affecting the nation.

When the Fidesz-led government passed Hungary’s new constitution in 2011, it was guided by the premise that “the Hungarian nation is unified”, Gulyás said.

“And if the Hungarian nation is unified, there are only Hungarian issues; there are no issues that concern just ethnic Hungarians or just Hungarians in Hungary,” he insisted.

Gulyás said the “numerology” behind recent analysis of the significance of the ethnic Hungarian vote in the April 8 election was “mistaken”.

He acknowledged that the election result could be broken down into results by county or district or the domestic and ethnic Hungarian vote, but insisted that “the point” was that ethnic Hungarians, too, should be allowed to contribute to “the expression of the unified Hungarian will”.

Gulyás said the 2.825 million votes received by the ruling parties, including the more than 200,000 votes cast by ethnic Hungarians, were a significant boost to the government’s mandate and its policy for Hungarians living beyond the border.

Asked about opposition objections to ethnic Hungarians holding voting rights, he said it needed to be made clear that the Hungarian nation was unified. “And if this is so then it cannot be called into question that in a country which — for historical reasons — has a quarter of its population living beyond its border, ethnic Hungarians must be ensured the right to have a say in the vital issues affecting the nation,” he said. Gulyás said he believed “things are heading in this direction” and praised the opposition parties that do not question ethnic Hungarians’ voting rights.

Source: MTI