History according to the chronicles: Álmos’s triumph over the Russians
In a series, 24.hu looked at Hungarian history using traditional chronicles instead of the validated history we are taught. After all, this was how people understood their past before history as we know it became widespread.
As Hungarian numbers swelled in the land of the Scythians, they wanted to find themselves a new land to live in. They decided on Attila’s former territories. In fact, chief Álmos was a descendant of Attila.
The seven chiefs gathered and elected Álmos as their leader. In order to make their decision official, they conducted a blood oath ceremony.
According to the chronicler Anonymous, the seven leaders left the land of the Scythians and made their way West. Amongst them were Álmos and his son Árpád, the latter the one who founded Hungary.
Since there were no official routes leading to human settlements, they paved their own path towards their unknown destination. They only ate what nature offered, which was mostly meat and fish.
“The men were out hunting every day, and that is why Hungarians are the best hunters in the world today as well,” Anonymous wrote.
When they reached Kiev, they chose to invade the “land of the Russians” on the other side of the Dnieper. Local leaders were terrified as they were aware of Álmos’s relation to the late Attila, to whom they used to pay taxes. However, despite their fears, they decided to go to war and rather die on the battlefield than be under foreign rule.
The Chief of Kiev gathered all his troops and called upon his Kun allies. Hungarians –as written by the chronicler – only had the Holy Spirit for support. Álmos stood in front of his troops and told them an encouraging speech:
“Scythians, comrades and gallant warriors. Remember the time when we decided to find a new place to live, whatever the cost. Therefore, do not be overwhelmed by the swarm of Russian and Kun men, as bravery is not defined by number but by the strength of the soul. We should fight with bravery against these dog-like people; let us be afraid of their multitudes as we are of a cloud of flies,” wrote Anonymous.
He also made references to Alexander the Great in addition to other mighty ancient Scythian warriors who triumphed over the Persians.
The Hungarian troops were galvanised by Álmos’s words, and after the sounding of the battle horns, they clashed with the enemy. Countless Russian and Kun soldiers fell, and their leaders fled all the way to Kiev. Álmos and his troops chased them all the way to the city walls and, as written by Anonymous, “they crushed the Kuns’ bald heads like raw pumpkins.”
After overseeing their victory, Álmos and his men captured the Russians’ land and possessions, and in the second week, they began the siege of Kiev. This was when the enemy sent ambassadors to Álmos. They made peace on Hungarian terms: Álmos requested the sons of Kun and Russian nobles to be held hostage in addition to an annual payment of 10,000 marks.
Previously, we wrote in greater detail about the famous Blood Oath ceremony. We also discussed five Hungarian kings who had extraordinary reigns.
Featured image: Wiki Commons.
Former Socialist House Speaker Szili: EP elections will see battle between pro-migration, anti-migration forces
The upcoming European Parliament elections will be a battle between pro-migration and anti-migration forces, the prime ministerial commissioner in charge of minority protection and autonomy said after consultations with senior politicians of the Party of the Hungarian Community (MKP) in Slovakia on Wednesday.
Katalin Szili told a press conference that
the elections would also decide whether supporters of the united states of Europe or the nation states of Europe gain majority.
Additionally, it will be decided whether the European Union can redefine itself in a globalising world and whether it will have the strength to pay attention not only to migrants arriving in the continent but also to the problems of its indigenous minorities, she said.
It is very important for Hungarians that their representatives should be able to take forward issues concerning indigenous minorities in the EP, she said. She called on voters to go to the polls and enable as many ethnic Hungarians from the Carpathian Basin to become MEPs as possible.
MKP leader József Menyhárt said
the EU must pay its debt to indigenous minorities, especially considering that they represent over 10 percent of the EU’s population.
Katalin Szili was member of the Hungarian Parliament as a Socialist Party (MSZP) delegate, who served as the Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary from 2002 to 2009. Currently, Szili is member of the Orbán cabinet as the prime ministerial commissioner in charge of minority protection and autonomy.
UNITED NATIONS DEBATE – INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY SHOULD FOCUS ON REPATRIATING MIGRANTS, SAYS HUNGARIAN FM IN NY
Government to support Hungarian education, culture in Carpathian Basin with 5 million euros
The government has allocated 1.6 billion forints (EUR 5m) for bids aimed to support diaspora Hungarians with regard to Hungarian-language education and culture in the Carpathian Basin, a senior government official said on Thursday.
Some 1.1 billion forints have been allocated to support Hungarian education and culture in the region, and an additional 500 million forints for Hungarian diasporas around the world,
the state secretary for Hungarian communities abroad said.
The former scheme aims to help ethnic Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin prosper in their homeland,
maintain and develop relations with Hungary and strengthen their Hungarian national identity, he said. The deadline for the implementation of projects is the end of this year, he added.
The latter allocation is offered for projects around the world to help the preservation of Hungarian culture and language and the deadline for implementation is the end of 2019 also, Potápi said.
Over 5,000 applications were submitted and a total of 1.07 million forints have been awarded for projects in the first tender and 359 applications were submitted and all of them approved in the second tender, Potápi said.
HUNGARY TO ERECT MEMORIAL OF TRIANON PEACE TREATY FOR THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY IN 2020 – DETAILS HERE
EP election 2019 – Orbán: Fidesz only force able to represent Hungarians in Brussels
Only Fidesz has the bona fide weight on the international stage to stand up for the Hungarian people in Brussels, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in Subotica (Szabadka) on Monday.
Noting that his first European parliament campaign meeting was being held in the city with a large Hungarian community, Orbán called
the event “symbolic” from the point of view of national cohesion.
He said all over the Carpathian Basin the feeling was growing that Hungarians may well be spread across 7 or 8 separate countries but they belong together, and this feeling was “rooted in historical fact while presenting a challenge, and indeed a task, for the future”.
Few in the past would have thought that Hungary would become a mother country able to stand up, in every forum, for Hungarians living beyond the border, even against the most powerful countries.
Hungarian government, he noted, has provided strong financial support for Hungarian communities beyond the borders.
Further, Orbán said that with Hungary’s help, Vojvodina would staunch the exodus of local citizens. He added that people returning to Hungary from abroad had begun to outnumber emigrants seeking employment elsewhere.
Orbán announced a 7-7.5 billion forint (EUR 21.8-23.4m) Hungarian government scheme to support Vojvodina’s economic development.
Hungary and Serbia are politically stable countries, Orbán said, adding that “with opportunities seized right away, tasks normally achieved over 8-10 years can be completed over the course of the next 3-4.”
Parliament called on to declare 2020 ‘year of national cohesion’
The Forum of Hungarian Lawmakers in the Carpathian Basin (KMKF) called on the Hungarian parliament and government to declare 2020 a year of national cohesion in its closing statement published on Friday.
In line with House Speaker László Kövér’s proposal, the statement called on parliament to make all decisions in its power so that “the nation may remember the tragedy of [the post-WWI] Trianon [peace treaty] in a worthy manner and … draw strength to preserve its identity.”
The document welcomed that the Hungarian government has declared 2019 the year of Hungarian children born abroad.
It also said that a strong representation of the Carpathian Basin in the European Parliament can keep the issues important for the community on the agenda. The KMKF expressed unanimous support for the Minority SafePack, an initiative to protect indigenous minorities within the EU.
The KMKF finds the curbing of acquired rights of ethnic minorities “unacceptable”, and expresses solidarity with Transcarpathia’s Hungarian community sticking to its long-standing system of mother-tongue education.
The widest possible range of self-governance is the best way to ensure the long-term existence and prosperity of ethnic minorities, it said.
The forum welcomed the forthcoming visit of Pope Francis to Sumuleu Ciuc (Csiksomlyo), a traditional pilgrimage site for Hungarians in Romania, as a historic event for Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin, KMKF said in its closing statement.
Orbán: Migration will completely reshape world
“Migration will completely reshape the world in which we live, and everything that happens in 2050 and beyond will be a consequence of what is happening now,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at a conference on Wednesday organised by the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MKIK).
Those who fail to protect themselves now will no longer have the chance to do so in 2050-60, Orbán said.
“When we talk about the effects of migration on Europe, it is about our children and grandchildren and their safety,” he added.
Addressing the business representatives at the conference, Orbán said: “Your economic successes will be pointless if your grandchildren and children take over your companies in a world which is not a good place to live in.”
Upcoming tasks, he said, include designing a strategy for supporting Hungarian companies’ outward investment. Hungarian companies must join the global economic competition, he said, but this required generating resources. Central bank governor György Matolcsy has been tasked with preparing this strategy, he noted, adding that Hungarian companies must make at least as much abroad as foreigners make in Hungary.
Orbán also identified turning around Hungary’s population decline and setting the economy on a path of sustainable growth that exceeds the European Union average by 2 percentage points as key objectives. The government’s family support initiatives will help to halt population decline in the country, he added.
Further, vocational training would be “radically reformed”, Orbán said.
Orbán insisted that
anyone who strove for a united states of Europe was pro-migration and wanted a Europe altered by immigrants.
Meanwhile, he said goals to be reached by 2030 included making Hungary one of the top five EU countries and among the five most competitive states.
Further, the Carpathian Basin must be reconstructed in both the physical and economic sense, and central Europe must become a real economic area, Orbán said. True energy independence must also come about, requiring the development of the Paks nuclear power plant, increasing the amount of solar energy and making fossil fuels available by new means such as gas extracted in Romania and the Turkish Stream pipeline being routed to Hungary. Also, pending an agreement with Slovenia, Italian LNG should also be made available in Hungary, he added.
Orbán addressed the Hungarian economic and social policy model, saying protections of individual dignity, property and free enterprise, family, national and religious communities grew out of Christian culture.
The prime minister underlined the importance of keeping the budget deficit below 3 percent of GDP, reducing government debt and ultimately making the debt Hungarian. “Indeed, it would be better in the end for Hungary to be a creditor rather than a debtor,” he said.
He said the work-based economy, family support system, full employment and industrial reforms were the pillars of the Hungarian economic model.
Orbán warned, however, that unless Hungarian companies renewed their activities, boosted their efficiency and responded to the increase in wage costs, they may fail.
Since Hungary’s population is unlikely to grow significantly in the near future, the economy will have 5 million workers at its disposal, so no expansion will be possible due to new employees entering the job market. But labour reserves are still available in cross-border formations, he added.
Orbán identified farming and the food industry based on it, as well as sport and culture, as prime areas on which domestic businesses can grow.
Addressing the relationship between the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) and the government, Orbán said the independence of the central bank as laid down in the constitution did not exclude the possibility of working together. A lack of cooperation would mean the separation of the real economy and the financial sector, he added.
Economic policy, he said, should be based on two kinds of vision simultaneously: one innovative and courageous, represented by central bank governor György Matolcsy, and the other rooted to the ground, as represented by Mihaly Varga, the finance minister.
Orbán told the chief executives present that Hungary was now in a rising phase. The challenge to Hungarians is not to take their successes for granted and let them go, putting off steps forward that fall beyond their comfort zone. “The reward for success … is to work even harder because if we don’t keep on peddling, the bicycle will fall over,” he added.
Orbán cabinet sets up Institute for Hungarian Studies
The government has set up an institute specialising in the research of Hungarian history and the development of tourism and education.
The institute, known as the Institute for Hungarian Studies (Magyarságkutató Intézet), was established on Jan. 1 after the government approved last November a decree on its founding drafted by Human Resources Minister Miklós Kásler.
Historical research at the institute will focus on the era preceding the 9th-century Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin, the origin of the Hungarian people, the Hungarian conquest itself and medieval Hungary.
The institute will also focus on the study of the internal structure of the Hungarian language, its peculiarities and its connections to Hungarian culture as a whole. It will also publish a journal.
Kásler has appointed Gábor József Horváth-Lugossy as the institute’s director-general.
THE HUNGARIAN CONQUEST – IN A NUTSHELL
At least half a dozen legendary stories are known about the fearful Hungarians who have raided half of Europe and kept the rest in terror just by their reputation. There are another half-dozen stories about the mysterious Hungarian Conquest, involving mythical and magical creatures. There is no certain version of the truth, but you might choose your favourite one if you continue reading HERE.
HOW DID HUNGARIANS AND A HUNGARIAN VILLAGE LOOK LIKE IN A.D. 895? – VIDEOS
Photo: wikicommons
Hungarian Permanent Conference held in Budapest
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán spoke about central Europe gaining strength as compared to the German-French axis in Europe, at a meeting of the Hungarian Permanent Conference (MÁÉRT) held behind closed doors in Budapest on Friday.
On a recording posted onto the government’s website, Orbán said the volume and value of German-French trade make up merely half of the one between the Visegrad Group and Germany which he called “an unprecedented development”.
The prime minister said he had predicted earlier that central Europe, including the Carpathian Basin, would become the engine of Europe’s economic growth in the years to come.
Orbán said the accession of Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia to the European Union would be a major step towards enhancing central Europe’s importance in geopolitical terms.
“The reunification of the Balkans is a shared interest of the EU, central Europe and Hungary,” he said.
Addressing relations with Croatia, Orbán said that the Hungarian government had always considered the dispute concerning national oil and gas company Mol an inter-company affair rather than an inter-governmental issue.
“I have tried to explain to them that lifting the Mol dispute to inter-governmental level would justify more forceful action by the Hungarian state which would do major damage to bilateral relations,” he said.
Legal conflicts between companies need to be judged by international courts and the Hungarian state will accept all their decisions in order to settle the conflict, he said.
The prime minister said he would pay an official visit to Croatia in early December.
Orbán expressed hope that large cross-border projects can be implemented in Croatia’s Slavonia region and southern Baranya in Hungary.
Commenting on Slovenia, Orbán said that Marjan Sarec, the new prime minister, was performing without fault in all international forums but promoted a different line in migration than Hungary, supporting the UN migration package.
Orbán added, however, that Hungary’s plan to participate in the development of the Koper port and the extension of the rail link there would not be realised. As a consequence,
the Hungarian government has started talks on access to a port and investment opportunities with Trieste instead of Koper, he added.
Commenting on western Europe, Orbán said that “west of Vienna the situation is hopeless in terms of demographics” because multiculturalism has triggered nearly irreversible social trends in large cities. It will be “spectacular” to witness how the structure and order of political representation will change there, he added.
Assessing economic development programmes funded by Hungary abroad, Orbán said it makes no sense supporting businesses which are then exposed to reprisals by the state that exercises supreme power. Hungary therefore asks the ethnic Hungarian parties to secure through negotiations the majority nation’s consent to such programmes, he said.
This is what happened in Romania where Hungary is now able to implement economic development programmes with the agreement of the majority nation, he said.
Orbán said the MEPs of the Romanian house speaker’s party, even if they belong to the Liberal group, had voted against the Sargentini report that condemned Hungary in the European Parliament. As a consequence, the European lawmakers of Hungary’s governing parties unanimously supported Romania in a vote on an EP resolution that attacked that country earlier this week.
Regarding Slovakia, Orbán said the Hungarian-Slovak Most-Hid party posed a problem of structural nature, raising the question whether mixed inter-ethnic parties or ethnic-based parties are more useful in the region. Orbán warned it would be “fatally dangerous” to change over to mixed inter-ethnic based representation which he called “a trap to be avoided”.
Orbán described Serbian-Hungarian relations as “unprecedented”, adding that the past few years had seen efforts to raise them to strategic level. He appreciated the Hungarian and Serbian presidents’ efforts to pave the way for historic reconciliation.
Hungary would be happy if Serbia’s legal regulations were generally followed in the Carpathian Basin as a whole, he said, adding that cultural autonomy has been practically achieved.
Commenting on Ukraine, Orbán said
Hungary “is not getting on” with the leaders of that country. “We come to an agreement on Monday and next day they say that no agreement has been reached,” he said, accusing the Ukrainian leaders of failing to take the negotiations seriously.
Their latest proposals, he said, made things even worse, and the open deployment of the secret services against ethnic Hungarians and suspected dual citizens went beyond what is tolerable in the Carpathian Basin.
Hungary can do only one thing, making it clear that the only road for Ukraine to NATO and the EU leads through Hungary and Budapest, Orbán said.
New Carpathian Lawyers’ Network presents itself in Kolozsvár
The newly established Carpathian Lawyers’ Network, an international group of lawyers working in Hungarian as well, formally introduced itself at a Hungarian festival in Cluj/Kolozsvár, in western Romania, on Friday.
The network comprises lawyers and law students who also use Hungarian for their work around the world.
Greeting the new organisation, László Kövér, the Speaker of Hungary’s Parliament, said in a letter that the Network can strengthen cooperation in alliance with the Association of Hungarian Lawyers in the Carpathian Basin beyond the borders.
Erika Mayer, the founder, told MTI after the event that the Network has been established as a community with the aim to promote cooperation among professionals working in Hungarian.
“Our goal is to adopt a common legal position on issues such as migration or EU affairs that arise in more countries,” she said.
The event on Friday was attended by lawyers from Hungary, Transylvania, southern Slovakia and Serbia’s northernmost region of Vojvodina.
Hungarian foreign ministry: Ukraine failing on EU, NATO due to its own errors
Ukraine has failed to get ahead in respect of its European Union and NATO aspirations, not because of Hungary, but due to its own mistakes, a foreign ministry official said on Thursday.
Tamás Menczer, state secretary for communications, said in a statement that criticism of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in connection with his “unfriendly” statements about Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations was unwarranted.
Ukraine summoned Hungary’s ambassador to Kiev to protest against Orbán’s recent speech given in Romania. Read more about Orbán’s speech HERE.
Noting Ukraine’s education law that prevents national minorities from studying in their mother tongue, Menczer said it was not Hungary that had made unfriendly moves against Ukraine but the other way round.
Extant minority rights are endangered in Ukraine and this flies in the face of its international commitments such as the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement and the NATO Preparedness Plan, he added.
Menczer said that notwithstanding the “open attack” on the Hungarian minority, Hungary has treated Ukraine with decency, recently having donated several tonnes of chlorine to the western part of the country in order to ensure a safe supply of drinking water, read details HERE.
“We expect Ukraine to give back rights taken from its national minorities,” the statement said.
Orbán: Europe’s current leaders were “inadequate” and incapable of protecting the continent from migration
In a keynote speech, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said that every European country has the right to protect its Christian culture and the traditional family model, as well as the right to reject immigration.
Orbán insisted that Europe’s current leaders were “inadequate” and incapable of protecting the continent from migration. He said the European elite had become bankrupted, and the symbol of this bankruptcy was the European Commission, whose days, he insisted, were numbered.
Addressing a forum at the 29th Balvanyos Summer University in Baile Tusnad (Tusnádfürdő), in central Romania, on Saturday, Orbán said the commission’s job was to be impartial and to guarantee the EU’s four freedoms. Instead, the commission has become biased “because it sides with the liberals”, Orbán said. “It is biased because it works against central Europe and is not a friend of freedom; it works to build a European Socialism instead of freedom.”
“The exclusively liberal European elite denies its roots and is building an open society instead of a Europe based on Christianity,” he added.
The prime minister said there was an alternative to liberal democracy and he dismissed the idea that Christian Democracy could also be liberal, saying that Christian democracy was “illiberal”.
Liberal democracy stands for multiculturalism and it undertakes the model of immigration and a flexible definition of the family. “Christian Democracy, on the other hand, gives priority to Christian culture, anti-immigration and the Christian family.”
The result of next year’s EP elections would result in waving goodbye to liberal democracy and to “the elite of the 1968”. Instead of the 1968 generation, the time has come for anti-communist, Christian, nationally committed generation of 1990, he proclaimed.
Meanwhile, Orbán said
the EU was currently pursuing a primitive policy towards Russia and “a nuanced policy is needed instead”.
The security of Hungary and the whole of the Carpathian Basin, as well as that of Europe, depends on whether Turkey, Israel and Egypt are stable enough to stop the influx of Muslims, he added.
Orbán set out five principles that were necessary for central Europe to occupy a “worthy place” in Europe. Every European country had the right to protect its Christian culture and to reject “the ideology of multiculturalism”. Also, the traditional family model and the principle that “every child has the right to a mother and a father” must be upheld. Further, central European countries have the right to protect their nationally strategic sectors and markets. Countries also have a fundamental right to defend their borders and to reject immigration, he said.
The principle of “one nation, one vote” on the most important issues should be insisted upon, he said, adding that this principle cannot be bypassed in the EU.
“We central Europeans hold that there is life beyond globalisation and that central Europe follows the path of an alliance of free nations,” the prime minister said.
Orbán declared that immigration would be the single serious issue in next year’s European parliamentary elections. He linked the outcome of the EP elections to the fate of its leadership, saying that when European citizens decide on the issue of immigration, they will have also passed judgement on the European elite and whether it has handled immigration properly.
“There is liberalism but there is no democracy,” he said, adding that this assertion was supported by a general tendency in western Europe to curb freedom of expression and introduce censorship.
The prime minister said that after eight successive years of a Fidesz government, in the April general election it received a two-thirds majority and with it “authorisation to build a new era”. The process of Hungarian unification has now turned into one of nation-building, he added.
Hungarians have shown they are able to understand complex situations, he said. “If need be, we have the will to decide on our destiny and move as a nation.”
“From Szeklerland, I can say that Hungarians from beyond the border have stood up for Hungarians of the motherland,” he said, adding that every vote was an undertaking of responsibility for Hungary.
He said Fidesz’s two-thirds majority won in 2010 had entitled the government to build a new system with a Hungarian model for the economy and a new constitutional order based on national and Christian foundations. In 2014, it was similarly endorsed to stabilise this system, he added. Following the outcome of this year’s election, Orbán said it was time to build a new era and to embed the political system into this new cultural era. “A new intellectual and cultural approach is needed,” he said.
Based on this stability, the government has set goals that could only have been dreamed of in the past, Orbán said. He declared that by 2030 Hungary would be among the top five countries in the EU for quality of life. Further, it will have stopped its declining population, he said. Motorways will have reached all its borders and it will have created energy independence, he continued, adding that will have built up its defence forces.
“Thirty years ago, we thought that Europe is our future, we now think we are the future of Europe,” the prime minister said, concluding his speech.
Fidesz will not leave European People’s Party
Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party will not leave the European People’s Party of its own volition, PM orbán said.
Orbán said loyalty was important and Fidesz wanted to contest the European parliamentary elections as part of the European People’s Party.
He noted, however, that the EPP contained parties with views that were far apart and bridging them would be “extremely hard” to do.
Fidesz represents the EPP’s Christian Democratic platform, he said, adding “we can be strong” by combining their forces together even at the cost of making internal compromises.
Talking about regional matters, the prime minister insisted that Serbia, just like Montenegro, “belonged” to central Europe rather than to the Balkans. Hungary, he said, must do everything possible to ensure they can join the European Union as soon as possible.
Asked whether support for Hungary’s ruling parties had peaked, Orbán said he calculated that between 63 and 65 percent of voters had taken part in some sort of “joint action” in the past and would consider voting for the Fidesz-led alliance in the future.
Meanwhile, the prime minister said the government was bound to consider both the motherland and the entire nation when it came to policymaking and nation-building. He said this is why the government had launched an economic development programme which encompasses the national community in Transylvania, too, and he pledged to continue it. He added that
it was also in Hungary’s interest that Romania should be strong and stable.
Photo: MTI
Ethnic leaders voice support for Hungarian government’s nation policy
Leaders of Hungarian parties in neighbouring countries have voiced support for the Hungarian government’s policies aimed at helping ethnic kin retain their national identity and prosper in their homelands.
Speaking at a roundtable at the Bálványos Summer University in Romania’s Baile Tusnad (Tusnádfürdő) on Friday, László Brenzovics, head of Ukraine’s ethnic Hungarian KMKSZ party, said that
Hungary’s solidarity was instrumental in the survival of his community “amid the Ukrainian state’s anti-Hungarian attacks, efforts to curb education rights and incite hatred against the Hungarian minority”.
István Pásztor, head of Serbia‘s VMSZ party, highlighted the Hungarian government’s economic programme aimed at supporting ethnic Hungarian businesses in Vojvodina province, and said that some 11,000 entrepreneurs had benefitted from the scheme in the past two and a half years.
Ferenc Horváth, the head of Slovenia’s Hungarian community, referred to the same economic programme as well as a Hungarian kindergarten scheme, and said that
Hungarians in Slovenia have “for the first time in 100 years seen that being Hungarian is not a disadvantage but a good thing”.
Slovakia’s MKP party was represented by chairman József Menyhárt, who highlighted the Hungarian government’s scheme designed to save small Hungarian schools from closure. He also announced that his party would field a candidate for Slovakia’s presidential election in the autumn.
Róbert Jankovics, head of Croatia‘s HMDK party, said that funds from Hungary had been instrumental in improving his community’s cultural institutions. He added that Hungarian farmers in Croatia had benefitted from a total one billion forints in grants from the Hungarian economic programme.
Romanian senator Barna Tánczos, who represented the RMDSZ party, said that
Hungary’s diplomatic assistance was very important at a time of recent Romanian court rulings “stigmatising the whole community as terrorists”.
Photo: MTI
Deputy PM urges autonomy for Romania Hungarians
Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén on Friday called on Romania to fulfil pledges the country’s first national assembly made in 1918, under which ethnic Hungarians should be granted autonomy.
Speaking at the Baile Tusnad Summer University, Semjén said that Romania should “honour that pledge and stop seeing it as extremism if Hungarians demand self-determination.”
The answer to the Trianon Treaties, which severed Transylvania from Hungary, is “national mourning, celebrating national unity and openly representing the Hungarian standpoint on such historical events,”
he said, criticising the call for holding a “national consultation” survey on the revision of Trianon.
Hungary is open to cooperation with Romania, he said, citing the country’s “historic reconciliation” with Serbia as an example of good relations.
Hungary provides economic support for ethnic Hungarian minorities in neighbouring countries, and such a cooperation is a win-win” situation for both sides. Hungary and Romania are cooperation successfully in setting up “Europe’s north-south infrastructural axis” and opposing the Ukrainian public education law, which Hungary says curbs minority rights, Semjén said.
The 1918 national assembly in Alba Iulia (Gyulafehérvár) and the declaration signed there created present-day Romania by uniting Transylvania with Bessarabia and Bukovina.
It is that time of the year again when Hungarians mourn the great loss that the Treaty of Trianon. June 4 is the 98th anniversary of Hungary losing 2/3 of its territory and about 1/3 of its population, read more HERE.
Photo: MTI
Situation in Ukraine test of strength for Hungary diplomacy, says Fidesz
The current situation in Ukraine is a test of strength for Hungarian diplomacy, as it is “entering unknown territory” in connection with promoting the interests of ethnic Hungarians, the head of parliament’s foreign affairs committee said in Synevyrs’ka Poliana (Felsőszinevér), in western Ukraine, on Friday.
Addressing a panel discussion at the 26th Transcarpathian Summer University (Kárpátaljai Nyári Egyetem), Zsolt Németh said the direction Ukraine takes with its education law banning post-primary-level education in minority languages would only become clear after next year’s presidential election there. The question, he said, was whether Transcarpathia Hungarians and Hungarian diplomacy would have room for manoeuvre in connection with the law’s implementation.
Németh argued that Ukraine’s education law was not solely about education, but rather about a process determining the quality of Ukrainian democracy.
He said the issue concerned not just Ukraine, but also Hungarian communities in the Carpathian Basin, given that the countries in which these communities live are also monitoring the situation of the Ukrainian education law.
He said the matter also concerned western European countries, the European Union, the Council of Europe as well as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and its Ukraine policy. The United States also has a role to play in the matter, Németh said.
But despite the dispute over the education law,
“Hungary’s interest still lies in safeguarding Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said.
However, tensions between the two countries are unlikely to go away anytime soon, he said, noting next week’s NATO summit and the upcoming bilateral meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.
Transcarpathian Hungarian Cultural Association (KMKSZ) leader László Brenzovics said international public opinion should force Ukraine to observe its own constitution and laws. Transcarpathia (Kárpátalja) Hungarians should continue to stand up for their rights, he added.
Jobbik’s vice president speaks for national minorities
Jobbik’s position is that Serbia cannot be a member of the EU unless the country ensures autonomy for its native Hungarian communities. Speaking as the deputy chairman of the EU Affairs Committee of the Hungarian National Assembly, Jobbik’s vice president Tibor Bana addressed the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC).
Mr Bana criticized the EU for hardly dealing with the autonomy efforts of national minorities living in their native lands. On a positive note, he emphasized that the European Citizens’ Initiative called Minority SafePack and other speeches delivered in international forums may change this situation.
“The freedom to use your language and symbols, as well as the right for education in your language, should be a fundamental right in the EU,”
Mr Bana stated in the conference held in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Jobbik’s politician also quoted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly on 16th December 1966, which states that:
“All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right, they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”
Áder first president to visit Csángó Hungarians in Romania
President János Áder and First Lady Anita Herczegh today visited the ethnic Csángó community in Romania‘s Bacau (Bákó) province, the first such visit by a Hungarian head of state.
At Lespedi (Lészped) village the president met with László Pogar, head of the federation of Moldavia’s Csángó Hungarians (MCSMSZ), who said that his community “has been waiting for 400 years for Hungary’s monarch or head of state to visit”. He voiced hope that the president’s visit would contribute to the community’s survival.
In his address, Áder quoted renowned ethnographer Zoltán Kallos, who had been a teacher at Lespedi, as saying that “while a lot of peoples in the Carpathian Basin disappeared we have stayed Hungarian… It is our duty to maintain our inherited traditions and pass them on to the next generation; that can only be done through faith, commitment and unselfishness.
“We will be Hungarians as long as we sing and dance Hungarian”.
The Moldavian Csángó community, Roman Catholic and speaking dialects of Hungarian, are estimated between 30,000-40,000 people. Under an education programme launched by the Hungarian government, 2,100 children are taught Hungarian language and literature in 28 villages of the region.
Photo: MTI
Withdrawal of Ukraine dual citizenship bill must have follow-up, says Hungarian FM
Ukraine‘s withdrawal of a bill that would have stripped dual citizens of their Ukrainian citizenship must only be “the first step” if the country is serious about its Euro-Atlantic aspirations, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told public news channel M1 on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian news agency UNIAN reported that President Petro Poroshenko had withdrawn the bill that would have stripped dual citizens who participate in the elections of other countries and use foreign passports when travelling in and out of Ukraine of their Ukrainian citizenship.
The Transcarpathian Hungarian Cultural Association (KMKSZ) welcomed the decision in a statement.
“The bill would have had an adverse impact on the lives of millions of Ukrainian citizens who had fled a life without prospects … Ukrainian citizens with dual citizenship of EU countries are an opportunity for rapprochement towards European structures and to strengthen the country’s European integration,” KMKSZ said.
The proposal, which Hungary had criticised on multiple occasions, was originally meant to target Crimeans, but it would also have applied to citizens of every other country, including Transcarpathia Hungarians.
Szijjártó has said that the law, if passed, would have been Ukraine’s “third blow” to its national minorities after the country’s amendment to its education law and the declaration of its language law as unconstitutional.
Hungary’s new parliament re-elected Viktor Orbán as prime minister
Hungary’s new parliament re-elected Viktor Orbán, the leader of the election-winning Fidesz party, as prime minister today.
Orbán, who is embarking on his fourth term in office, was elected with 134 votes in favour and 28 against.
After the election, Orbán took his oath of office.
Orbán vows to serve all Hungarians in fourth term
Orban, in his inaugural address to parliament, noted that his governing alliance holds two-thirds majority in parliament, but he vowed to “serve the three-thirds”.
“The homeland cannot be in opposition with itself because its vastly transcends the parties,”
Orbán said. “Serving it cannot depend on whether we happen to be in opposition or in government.”
“I stand before you optimistic, hopeful and ready to act,” the prime minister told lawmakers.
Orban thanked the election’s participants, singling out voters who had backed the Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance.
Orbán pledges to plan for next 12 years
He said his Fidesz government was thinking in terms of planning for the next twelve years.
Orbán said Hungary was “in the right constellation”.
“Hungary’s case has been won. Everything needed for great plans ahead has already come together,” he said.
Hungarians, he added, now believed that “tomorrow can be better than today if they do their job right”.
“They want a government that is worthy of their future. This encourages us — and entitles us — to make plans not only for the next four years but for the next ten years, too. Indeed, we should think in terms of twelve years,” Orbán said, adding that this would be in line with the demand for responsible government, given that the next European Union budget will conclude in 2030.
Orbán: ‘Era of liberal democracy is over’
Orbán said:
“The era of liberal democracy is over.”
“In place of the tinkering of liberal democracy that has run aground, we will build a Christian democracy of the 21st-century which guarantees human dignity, freedom and security, protects gender equality, the traditional family model, holds back anti-Semitism, protects our Christian culture and gives our nation a chance to survive and prosper,” Orbán said, referring to “Hungary’s response to a changed world”.
“I know that many will consider it impossible, but I think it is achievable for Hungary to be among the top five European countries to live and work in by 2030,” he said.
Orbán vows to lead sovereign state of free Hungarians
Orbán pledged to govern “a sovereign Hungarian state of free Hungarians”.
“We must live with the confidence and dignity of a country that understands that Hungarians have given more to the world than that which they have received,”
the prime minister said.
He added he wanted to convince neighbouring countries to join forces and make the Carpathian Basin Europe’s “securest and fastest-developing” economic, trading and transport area.
“Over the past years, we have shown time and again that no one need fear Hungarians; whoever cooperates with us reaps the profits,” Orbán said.
Orbán: ‘We will fight to protect our borders’
Hungary will continue to oppose mandatory migrant quotas, stand up for Europe’s Christian culture and fight to protect its borders, PM Orbán said.
“Thousands of paid activists, bureaucrats and politicians are working in Brussels today to have migration declared a basic human right,”
Orbán insisted. “This is why they want to take away our right to decide for ourselves whom to take in…”
Orbán said his government wants a strong Europe, peace and to reach mutually beneficial agreements with the European Union.
“We need the EU and the EU needs us,” he said, adding that his government would represent the view that the bloc should function as an alliance of free nations. It should “give up its delirious nightmares of a united states of Europe … and come back down to reality.”
“Now that I’ve taken my oath, I reaffirm to every single member of the nation, all fifteen million Hungarians … that all my actions will be dedicated to the service of our nation and country, the Hungarian people, Hungarian interests and Christian values,” he said.
Photo: MTI