Orbán’s mixed races speech: the Hungarian Academy of Sciences appalled

“Humans living today belong to a single species,” a sharp statement from the presidency of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), without mentioning the name of Viktor Orbán.

The Presidential Board of MTA does not say whether it is reacting to Viktor Orbán’s speech in Tusnádfürdő, but it seems likely that it is. “Humans living today belong to a single species (Homo sapiens), whose members differ from each other in skin colour, body type, facial features, etc.” reads the statement adopted by MTA in its statement of 4 August.

The statement begins with a quote from St Stephen (Szent István), first King and founder of the State of Hungary in the 11th century. The quote is the following:

“Because as guests come from different lands and provinces,

so different languages and customs,

different examples and weapons they bring with them,

and all this adorns the country, and brightens the court…”

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They go on to say that none of the races of man, which have evolved over time, is higher or lower than the other, and that their intermingling is contemporaneous with the history of mankind. Any restriction or stigmatization of this process is incompatible with universal human culture, humanism, Christianity and human rights, they underscored.

They added that people do not differ by race, but “by geography, history, language or national identity”. Cultural mixing, they wrote, can help social progress but can also be a source of significant tensions.

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At the same time, the MTA’s presidency sees it as the task of politics and society to maintain “the diversity of cultures, enriching each other while preserving their identity”, to coordinate their encounters and to reconcile the differences that arise.

They concluded the sharply worded statement by writing the following:

“Sometimes bitter historical experience teaches us to be wary of oversimplified answers.”

Earlier, 67 members of MTA condemned Viktor Orbán’s words on miscegenation, including the previous presidents of the Academy, rtl.hu writes.

Source: rtl.hu, mta.hu