State secretary: Hungarian communities in the diaspora are fortresses of the nation

Hungarian communities in the diaspora are “fortresses of the nation” and key to its survival, Árpád János Potápi, state secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office, told MTI on Tuesday, on the occasion of Hungarian Diaspora Day.

“If the diaspora is weakened or disappears, the core of the nation will follow, that is why supporting ethnic communities is a top priority for the Hungarian government,” Potápi said.

Ethnic Hungarian communities in the Carpathian Basin make up nearly half of the Hungarians living outside Hungary, he said. Those communities were drastically reduced in number in the 20th century, but the past decade has “proven that no process must be declared irreversible”, he said.

15 November, the birth and death anniversary of Gábor Bethlen (1580-1629), prince of Transylvania, was declared Diaspora Day in 2015.