Péter Magyar calls for unity on 105th anniversary of Trianon: “We will always rebuild our country”
Hungarians must unite for each other, Péter Magyar, the leader of the opposition Tisza Party, said on Wednesday, marking the Day of National Cohesion.
In a statement, Magyar said Hungarians had survived in the middle of Europe for more than a millennium, having endured revolutions and occupations “in a buffer zone of other peoples and powers”. He said Hungarians were strong when united but were “destined to fail if we are divided”.
“Our response to Trianon is a just, humane and shared Hungary for every Hungarian wherever they may live,” he said of the peace treaty ending the First World War under which two-thirds of Hungary’s territory was ceded to neighbouring countries. “They can try to divide us … sell us out, split us up and betray us. But we will always get back up together and rebuild our country,” he said.
Kövér: ‘Hungarians must continue democratic struggles they began in 2010’
“Hungarians must continue the democratic struggles for national self-defence that they started in 2010,” Speaker of Parliament László Kövér said in Nyíregyháza, in north-eastern Hungary, on Wednesday, marking the Day of National Cohesion.
In his commemorative speech, Kövér said it was important that Hungarians do not allow themselves to be deceived “the way their forebears did in 1918 and 1919” directly before the signing of the Treaty of Trianon. “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes,” Kövér said. “It would be tragic for our children and our grandchildren if we allowed our Hungarian future to rhyme with our history of 1918-1919.”
He warned that if the “dark period of 1918-19” was forgotten, “those times could return” because the country today was also seeing a return of the types of politicians who rose to power amid the chaos that followed the First World War. “These people, with their press funded from abroad and in the service of foreign interests, want to deceive the Hungarian people and cripple the Hungarian state the way their forebears did in 1918-1919,” the speaker said.
He said the Hungarian sacrifices of the 105 years that have passed since the signing of the Trianon Peace Treaty demanded that Hungarians defend their country and nation from vulnerability and “our children and grandchildren from falling victim to political con artists and imperial agents again”.
Kövér said Hungarians should draw strength from the fact that over the past century they had “proven themselves stronger than those who wanted to tear them apart”. He said the only way the nations of the Carpathian Basin could become “sources of Europe’s preservation and the necessary rebirth of the European Union” was by cooperating to preserve their nations and states.
Karácsony: Trianon ‘shared trauma’
The Treaty of Trianon that ended the First World War is a “shared trauma”, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said on Wednesday, marking the Day of National Cohesion.
In a post on Facebook, Karácsony said it was important to remember the Trianon treaty under which two-thirds of Hungary’s territory was ceded to neighbouring countries by “acknowledging the truth about the injustice, but without hiding from reality behind our grievances”.
He said that in 1920 the pain of Trianon had united the nation, “but today, not even pain unites us”. “Trianon lives with us and cannot be erased. It is a shared trauma,” the mayor said. “It meant suffering for hundreds of thousands, forever upending the lives of 3.5 million Hungarians beyond the border.
Karácsony said Budapest today still carries the burden of Trianon “because it became a scapegoat”. “There have been and still are those who tear open painful wounds to turn the country against the capital,” he said. He said political disagreements could not be about who was or was not part of the nation.
Semjén advocates promoting nation, homeland to ‘process Trianon’
June 4 “is a day for mourning, drawing conclusions, and taking pride,” Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén said in Szarvas, in south-eastern Hungary, on Wednesday. “The lesson of the Day of National Cohesion is that the pain of a mutilated nation can be relieved through building the nation and the homeland,” he said.
Speaking at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, Semjén said, “June 4 bears a peculiar dichotomy: it is a day of mourning over Trianon, but it is also a celebration of national cohesion.”
“It is a day to understand lessons, to see what led to Trianon, and we can draw conclusions for the future of the nation,” he said. “It is also a day for pride because we have survived Trianon, even though in Trianon they didn’t want us to, and this could lend us strength for the future.”
Culture ministry calls for tenders for a total of HUF 7.5 bn
The culture and innovation ministry has announced four tenders worth a total of 7.5 billion forints (EUR 18.6m) to mark the Day of National Cohesion, Balázs Hankó, the culture and innovation minister, said on Wednesday.
The tenders aim to strengthen Hungarian culture and national identity and will reach “every Hungarian community in the Carpathian Basin”, he said. One of the tenders is for programmes taking Hungarian culture to children in kindergartens, he said.
The Csoóri Sándor Programme will promote folk music, culture and traditions, while a third tender is aimed at funding theatres and performing artists in the Carpathian Basin. The fourth will support religious pop music events, instrument purchases and instrument renovations, he said.
Read more about the Trianon Treaty HERE.
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