Fidesz MEP marks anniversary of Pan-European Picnic

The Pan-European Picnic, a peace demonstration on the Hungarian-Austrian border in 1989 which involved the first opening of the communist Iron Curtain, carries the message that patriotism and European identity are reconcilable, a Fidesz MEP said in a statement on Friday, marking the picnic’s 32nd anniversary.

On August 19, 1989, the Pan-European Picnic was organised as a demonstration for European peace and included plans to symbolically open the Hungarian-Austrian border for a few hours. East Germans, spending their holidays at Hungarian camping sites, have caught wind of the event and hundreds left all their belongings behind to try and reach Western Europe.

“Today, with national sovereignty, mutual respect and tolerance under attack, and with many proclaiming those values incompatible, Hungarians have a historic obligation to stand by them and raise their voices to say that the key to European identity and cooperation between East and West is listening to each other and the will to learn from each other,” Lívia Járóka said in a statement.

“The 1989 opening ushered in a new chapter in European life, dismantling the walls of a decades-long regime based on oppression and discrimination,” Járóka said. Learning from past experience is essential to handling today’s challenges, she added.

“That experience is rooted in our faithfulness to our national identity and in the historic values of Europeanness. So today becomes a celebration of a Europe based on the mutual appreciation of nation states,” she said.

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Source: MTI