Scythians may become a native ethnic minority in Hungary
It may sound surprising at first, but there are citizens living in Hungary who would identify themselves as belonging to the Scythian ethnicity, if they could. The National Election Committee (Nemzeti Választási Bizottság, NVB) recently discussed an initiative during its Tuesday session. A new proposal asked to recognise Scythians as an ethnic minority that is native to Hungary.
According to the author of the plea, the Scythian minority meets the conditions set forth in the Minority act and ask for Parliament to recognise them as such. The National Election Committee verified the initiative, submitted by private individual Dr. Alfréd László Pócs, aiming to declare the Scythian ethnic group as a native ethnic group, with 15 votes in favor and 0 against, Helló Magyar writes.
Who are the Scythians?
In ancient times, these nomadic horse-riding peoples inhabited the grassy plains of Europe and Asia, mainly north of the Black Sea. They are generally regarded as the courageous eastern people who are considered the common ancestors of the Hungarians and Huns. There are several theories about the origin of the legendary nomadic horse riders, but opinions agree that they flourished between 700 BC and 200 BC.
Interestingly, Science Alert, a scientific news website, reported on a new study claiming that the analysis of Scythian bones suggests that their highly mobile, nomadic lifestyle does not entirely correspond to reality. In fact, some of the peoples classified as Scythians often settled down and engaged in agricultural lifestyles and urban centres.
Minority recognition in Hungary
Unfortunately, neither the initiative nor the decision of the National Election Committee clarified how many people in Hungary today can consider themselves Scythians. Currently, the Hungarian state recognises 13 different ethnic minorites: Bulgarian, Greek, Croatian, Polish, German, Armenian, Roma, Romanian, Ruthenian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, and Ukrainian.
According to the law on the rights of nationalities in Hungary, the Scythians must prove that the ethnic group has been native to the territory of Hungary for at least a century. Furthermore they must constitute a numerical minority among the population, and possess their own language, culture, and traditions distinct from the rest of the population. If they provide evidence of a sense of belonging, aimed at preserving, expressing and protecting the interests of their historically established communities, the National Assembly could accept the initiative.
Hungary-founded kindergarten inaugurated near Kyiv
Hungary has always done everything in its power to help in the reconstruction of Ukraine, a government official said on Monday, at the inauguration of a kindergarten in Zahalc, near Kyiv.
At the event inaugurating the well-equipped container nursery supported with Hungarian government funds and coordinated by the Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA), Levente Magyar welcomed the development of the village, which he said evolved from “ruins and unusable roads into a reviving, optimistic community that looks into the future”.
The region was badly damaged during early in the war, and the Hungarian government has been working with HIA to help rebuild local institutions, he said.
Reconstruction of the local school will also begin shortly, Magyar said.
- read also: Hungary sees business opportunity in Ukraine
- more news about Ukraine
Minister Szijjártó: While Hungarian schools are accepting Ukrainian refugees, Hungarian schools in Ukraine are being closed
Hungary is not willing to send ammunition to Ukraine, though it will not stop other European Union countries from doing so, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said on Monday, adding that Hungary had therefore constructively abstained concerning the matter.
Szijjártó noted that proposals were on the agenda of today’s meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels to increase arms shipments and to finance one billion euros-worth of artillery shells for member states to supply Ukraine from their own stocks as part of the European Peace Framework.
“Hungary is not supplying weapons … we want peace,” he told a press conference held during a break of the meeting. “That’s why we’re not taking part … We’re not supplying ammunition to Ukraine, neither are we preventing others from doing what they want… ”
Hungary’s contribution to the EPF is one percent, or around ten million euros, to be used for other purposes such as working for the stability of the Western Balkans and reducing migration pressure, a ministry statement cited Szijjártó as saying.
The minister said Hungary would not take part in procuring ammunition or delivering it to Ukraine.
Szijjártó said Brussels was still fomenting “an atmosphere of war” and that countries promoting peace were under mounting pressure to fall in line. He added that a diplomatic settlement was the only way to save lives.
“No matter the pressure on us … we continue to represent the cause of peace,” he said.
He said Hungary had been criticised for taking its position to the UN Security Council, adding that it had been frowned on that a country from “the European choir” should “sing out in international organisations”. Given that the EU comprises sovereign countries, “this is quite extraordinary”, he said. “We reject any pressure that undermines the sovereignty of Hungarian foreign policy…” he added.
On the topic of the “disenfranchisement of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine”, Szijjártó said he had turned to Josep Borrell, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, with a request that, when it comes to Ukraine’s possible accession talks, he should make it clear to Kyiv that respect for national rights is one of the most fundamental European values and that the rights of the Hungarian national community should be respected.
He said it was “unacceptable” that 99 Hungarian primary and secondary schools in Transcarpathia were under the cloud of closure from Sept. 1 when 1,300 schools and kindergartens in Hungary had taken in Ukrainian refugee students.
The minister said Ukraine’s EU prospects would be heavily determined by whether Ukraine respects the rights of the Hungarian national minority and whether it restores the rights they enjoyed prior to 2015.
Read alsoPutin: region Hungarians live in is old Russian land
Minister: Hungary wants to be Ukraine’s friend
“Our long history has shown us that the key for survival in these times is the depth of Christian faith,” head of the Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyás said at a general assembly of the Reformed Church in Transcarpathia on Saturday. He also talked about how Hungary wants to be Ukraine’s friend but there is something that makes it quite hard nowadays.
Gulyás said the ethnic Hungarian community in Transcarpathia is in the most difficult situation of all the communities that make up the world’s Hungarians. “When we help the ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia, we also help Ukraine,” he added.
“With disregard for international law, Russia has attacked its neighbour which has defended itself heroically,” he said. Hungary condemns the aggression and “we bow our heads to all the soldiers fighting for their home and for freedom”, he added.
He noted that Hungary has welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees and acknowledged the work of ethnic Hungarian institutions in Transcarpathia to look after people fleeing warzones.
Humanitarian aid Hungary has offered since the start of the war comes to more than HUF 31 billion (EUR 80 million) and charities have delivered 3,500 tonnes of donations, worth over HUF 8 billion (EUR 20.4 million), to Ukraine, he said.
Hungary wants to be Ukraine’s friend “but this is made difficult today by intentional misunderstandings and steps that violate the rights of the ethnic Hungarian community”, he said.
While Ukraine protests the violation of its sovereignty under international law, it is not right “to neglect basic rights and international norms affecting the ethnic minorities living on its territory”, he said. The Hungarian men that fight under Ukraine’s flag “deserve to be treated as the country’s own”, he added.
Read alsoUkraine outraged: Orbán said behind closed doors that they would lose the war
Hungary, Romania will act together for ethnic minorities in Ukraine
Acting on a joint Hungarian-Romanian initiative, the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has unanimously decided to ask the CoE advisory body Venice Commission to asses if Ukraine’s minority protection law accords with international standards, the head of parliament’s foreign affairs committee said on Thursday.
Zsolt Németh told MTI that Ukraine had failed to coordinate with the Venice Commission or representatives of national minorities despite being obliged to do so, and the representatives have expressed their dissatisfaction with the new law.
Németh, a ruling Fidesz lawmaker, said that the Venice Commission was expected to handle the issue as a priority and may publish its assessment within months. It is also in Ukraine’s interest that its minority protection law should fall in line with international norms, he added.
“A basic condition of Ukraine’s European Union integration is compliance with international minority protection regulations, and the Copenhagen criteria required for accession also stipulate this,” he said.
Németh also said that the Hungarian delegation had notable successes at the CoE parliamentary assembly, citing the its legal committee’s unanimous approval of a Hungarian report on the fulfilment of Hungary-related rulings of the European Court of Human Rights. Hungary’s performance has improved outstandingly in comparison with that of other countries, he added.
Read alsoAre Transcarpathian Hungarians taken by force to die against the Russians?
Should Hungarian expats have a say in the country’s public life?
More than 400,000 thousand people of voting age have left Hungary to pursue a career abroad, but their participation in their home countries’ public life has been widely debated. DW Magyar has looked into the issue.
Hungarians abroad
As a matter of fact, the pandemic considerably slowed down the recent trend of Hungarians emigrating from their home country to, mainly, Western Europe. Besides, in 2019 more Hungarian citizens moved back to Hungary than the number of those who left their motherland. Nevertheless, according to the UN, more than 632.000 Hungarian citizen lives abroad. Their participation in Hungarian public life has been debated vigorously since the emigrating trend started to gain traction in early 2010, and publicly stating one’s opinions has become much easier on Social Media. From a legislative point of view, Hungarians living abroad can be categorised in two ways: those who are working or living abroad, but alongside their Hungarian citizenship, they have residency in Hungary, and those ethnic Hungarian citizens, who are living abroad but do not have residency in Hungary.
“For hundreds of years, the right to vote has always been linked to citizenship,”
said Prof. Melani Barlai from Andrássy University Budapest to Deutsche Welle about the participation of Hungarian emigrants in Hungarian political life. “A Hungarian citizen is part of the political community, there are no borders regarding this.” One argument against the emigrant’s participation is that they do not contribute to the state finances by being taxed in a different country, but professor Barlai says this logic is at fault. “These people regularly support their family members living in Hungary by transferring money to help them, which is then reflected in the Hungarian GDP.” According to the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH), in 2019, Hungarian emigrants transferred more than 158 billion forints (383 million euros) to their home country.
Politics online
As political communication and participation in public matters moved to the online sphere, it has been getting much easier for those living abroad to take part in public discourse. “A 2019 research paper of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) confirms that Hungarian emigrants do follow Hungarian political events, they are interested in political affairs, and are media consumers. Media consumption does not require people to be physically present in the country, Hungarian news portals are equally accessible from Germany, Austria or Canada”, reasons Ballai. The university professor also believes that expats’ participation does not differ from the youth’s, with the traditional ways of taking part in political discourse giving way to modern forms. “I think after the pandemic the world has realised that you don’t necessarily have to be present to participate in an activity, and the internet’s role in political participation has increased. The traditional ways of being active in politics are not attractive to young Hungarians, i. e. to vote. However, they are becoming more active in the online space by voicing their opinion, signing petitions or taking part in group activities.”
Read more: Government supports preserving identity of diaspora Hungarians
The DW video in Hungarian:
Read more: Radical increase for education support for ethnic Hungarians beyond the borders
Author: István Köles
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.
Hungary’s government has supported Transylvanian Hungarians with a lot of money since 2010
Major opportunities in Hungarian-Romanian economic and infrastructure cooperation can be tapped, János Lázár, the minister of construction and investment, said in Bucharest after talks with several members of the Romanian government.
His negotiating partners included Deputy Prime Minister Hunor Kelemen, leader of the ethnic Hungarian RMDSZ party, Minister of Development Attila Cseke and Deputy Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu, the minister of transport. The two countries want to connect their motorway networks, Lázár said, adding that Hungary will continue constructing the M49 motorway towards the Romanian border next year.
Access to cohesion and recovery funding has created proper conditions for Romania to launch big infrastructure projects, the minister said. Bucharest will earmark 30 percent of these funds for transport development, including motorway construction in Transylvania, the western Romanian region where many ethnic Hungarians live. Lázár called the latter an “encouraging and reassuring development”.
Romania is eager to catch up with the European average in terms of its transport network, which also lies in Hungary’s economic and national strategic interests, Lázár said. Even though Romania’s accession to the Schengen zone is on the agenda and backed by Hungary, there is a pressing need to open as many border crossings as possible to boost trade between border regions, he said.
Read also Outrage in Romania: politician said he would hang this Hungarian journalist
“Whatever the political situation, Romania and Hungary are one another’s major trade and economic partners. As Hungary has a trade surplus of nearly 3 billion euros in two-day trade and it has a vested interest in safe, smooth and quick traffic flows between the border regions and on the major European traffic arteries,” Lázár said.
Asked whether any progress had been made in opening new border crossings, the minister said that the related projects could gain momentum and “some previous brakes are being released”.
Lázár appreciated RMDSZ’s role in the Romanian government, adding that the alliance serves as an important bridge of cooperation between the two countries.
Read alsoHungarian government reacts to Putin’s words but does not refute them
The minister noted that the Hungarian government was financing some major investment projects in Transylvania, and has supported Romania’s ethnic Hungarian community with 400 billion forints (EUR 995m) since 2010.
Lázár said these projects are also meant to benefit Romanian and are being implemented with the knowledge of the Romanian government.
Hungarian foreign ministry slams Romania top court decision on Targu Mures secondary school
A decision by Romania’s supreme court which paves the way for the closure of the Ferenc Rákóczi II Catholic Secondary School in Targu Mures (Marosvásárhely) is appalling, the foreign ministry state secretary for communications said on Wednesday.
Tamás Menczer said on Facebook that “in the 21st century, schools should be opened instead of closed”.
He said
Hungary expected the Romanian authorities to make urgent arrangements that ensure the future operation of the school.
In order to facilitate a solution, the foreign ministry maintains continuous contact with the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania which is a member of the ruling coalition, he added.
He expressed hope that
the issue will be soon settled and will not burden in the long term Hungary-Romania relations.
The Romanian supreme court passed a ruling on Tuesday in a lawsuit initiated by Romanian nationalist organisations.
As we wrote before, Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, in a message marking Hungary’s March 15 national holiday, said his government respected the identity and values of ethnic Hungarians in his country. Details HERE.
Hungary knew about the attack on Ukraine and wanted to take part of the territory, says Danilov
Secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov said that Hungary knew about the preparation of an attack on Ukraine and wanted to take part of the territory, Ukraine Today said.
This is not the first time that rumours and speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin has somehow offered Transcarpathia (Kárpátalja) to Hungary have appeared in the European press, and Russian politicians have made such insinuations, but
this is the first time that such direct statements have been made by a prominent Ukrainian politician.
History
The Hungarian tribes entered the Carpathian Basin from here, through the Verecke Pass in 895, and the lands of Transcarpathia were part of the Hungarian Principality from 895, which became the Kingdom of Hungary in 1000.
From 1867, it was part of the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary until its dissolution at the end of the First World War.
Transcarpathia was briefly part of the short-lived West Ukrainian National Republic in 1918. The region was occupied by Romania by the end of that year, mostly the eastern portion such as Rakhiv and Khust. It was later recaptured by Hungarian Soviet Republic in the summer of 1919.
Finally, after the Treaty of Trianon of 1920 it became part of Czechoslovakia.
Before Russia invaded Ukraine, there were about 150,000 Hungarians living in Transcarpathia, and although this area was not affected by the horrors of war, it is believed that half of the Hungarians came to Hungary to seek refuge. After the war, it is therefore expected that there will be a much smaller Hungarian minority in Ukraine.
Even before the Russian aggression,
there was a serious conflict between the Hungarian and Ukrainian governments over the use of the language and minority rights of Hungarians living in Ukraine.
Danilov: Hungarian government knew it
“Hungary openly declares its cooperation with the Russian Federation. Moreover, it was warned by Putin in advance that there would be attacks on our country. You saw its position,”
Danilov said.
According to him, Hungary had plans for part of the territory of Ukraine.
“For some reason, Hungary believed that they would be able to take her part of the territory. This will never happen. Well, we will see what consequences after this war will be for this country,” the NSDC Secretary stressed.
Earlier it was reported that Hungary is again threatening to block the oil embargo against the Russian Federation. This strong reaction may be due to the dispute over the oil embargo on the Ukrainian side.
As we wrote yesterday, Hungarian embassy reopens in Kyiv, read details HERE.
Romania Hungarians to declare nationality in census, says RMDSZ
Hunor Kelemen, head of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), called on Hungarians to participate in Romania’s ongoing census, saying that “if the Romanian state sees Hungarians in Romania as a robust community, it will have a different approach to them”, in Budapest on Monday.
Speaking to public news channel M1, Kelemen noted that in the previous census ten years ago, 1,260,000 respondents had declared themselves Hungarian. This year’s census results will determine the public policy decisions towards ethnic communities for the next ten years, including language use, education in the mother tongue and the level of state support, he said.
“It is most important that the Romanian state should see us as a strong community as much as we should also see ourselves as a strong community,” the RMDSZ leader said.
He called for filling out the questionnaire online by May 16 and answering every question including the ones on ethnic and religious identity.
Read more news about Transylvania and Romania
Hungary to build kindergartens and culture centres in Croatia
Hungarians from Baranja (Drávaszög), in Croatia, who voted in Hungary’s recent general election, showed that “the mother country can rely on Hungarians beyond the border, and they can continue to rely on the support of the mother country,” Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said on Thursday.
After talks with Robert Jankovics, head of the Democratic Union of Hungarians of Croatia, Szijjártó told a joint press conference in Bilje (Bellye) that voters had been called on to make a decision concerning war and peace. It was important that on a matter “concerning the fate of the nation”, all members of the nation should be able to participate, he added.
He accused the left-wing opposition of planning to withdraw the right to vote by members of the Hungarian communities beyond the border.
Szijjártó noted that the Fidesz-led alliance had received a record number of votes from Hungary’s near abroad, and this was also true of Croatia. Some 390 ballot papers were submitted at the consulate general in Osijek (Eszék), twice as many as four years ago, he said.
The government will continue to finance educational, cultural and church institutions for Hungarian communities in Croatia, he said.
Three new Hungarian kindergartens and a culture centre will be built,
and the scholarship system for students of Hungarian schools will be maintained, he said.
Szijjártó said an economic development scheme for Baranja, in Croatia, had been a success, profiting both ethnic Hungarians and Croatians living in the region. A total of 791 businesses have received a total of 4 billion forints (EUR 10.6bn), enabling investments worth 6.7 billion forints, he added. Support for an additional 84 small farmers and agricultural businesses amounting to 430 million forints will induce investments worth 700 million forints, he said.
The minister said cooperation between Hungary and Croatia in minority protection “sets an example to the whole of the European Union”, enabling the countries “to find rational solutions based on mutual respect in difficult matters that crop up from time to time”.
“The stronger the neighbour the better things go for us,”
he added. Jankovics thanked Hungary for support it provided during the coronavirus epidemic and after the large earthquake of 2020. The support system of the Hungarian government has enabled members of the Hungarian community in Croatia to be stronger and more united, he said.
Read alsoThe Guardian: this Hungarian train journey is in Europe’s top 10 – PHOTOS
Russian disinformation campaign targets Hungarians in Transcarpathia?
Yesterday, information started to circulate that through an SMS campaign someone is trying to set people against minorities living in Ukraine. Especially ethnic Hungarians living in the Zakarpattia province and mainly centred around the Berehove region were targeted in the hate campaign.
This is what the messages said: “Ukraine for Ukrainians! Glory to Ukraine! Death to Enemies! To the knife with Hungarians!”
Details about the suspicious messages
Yesterday András Rácz, an expert on Russia, has shared a post in which Dmytro Tuzhanskyi, IFAT’s Think Visegrad fellow from Ukraine was talking about an SMS campaign which has been ongoing for around two days on the date of posting. His post said the following:
“There is a Russian information operation actually going in Ukraine’s Zakarpattia region. The objective is to create the impression that ethnic Hungarians are severely threatened by Ukrainian nationalists.
Yesterday and today a targeted SMS campaign was launched, and messages were sent to plenty of Ukrainian phone numbers in the Zakarpattia region, mostly (but not only) in the Beregove region.”
“How do we know, that this one is a Russian campaign? Of course, there is no absolute certainty at the moment. However, there are two indicators which make it quite likely that this is a disinformation operation connected to Russia.”
The original post listed the reasons as follows:
“First. Such methods with such statements were already used in a number of earlier disinformation campaigns launched through the network of Russian propaganda outlets like Regnum, News-Front, etc.
Second. This information campaign is simultaneously complemented with another one, spreading from Russia, promoting the narrative that Hungarians of Zakarpattia want to secede from Ukraine and join Hungary. This is a very old Russian narrative to provoke and exploit Hungarians and Ukrainians since 2014.
Third. This information campaign is coincided with current debates at EU and NATO level regarding new Russian sanctions and support to Ukraine, especially regarding sanctions of energy supply, “closing sky” and NATO peacekeeping mission.”
The Hungarian expert also added a few points:
“This particular call “To the knife with Hungarians!” was already used in a number of earlier disinformation campaigns that could be attributed to Russia. […] It is clear that serious resources were necessary to execute such action: not only a database was needed, but also the ability to define the location of the given phone numbers.”
Another threat intercepted
Connected to the case, a Hungarian historian, Miklós Mitrovits who is also a member of the public body of the Hungarian Academy of Science has translated a recent analysis and report of the Polish Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW).
According to his translation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine has reported 1271 criminal cases which have been prosecuted for suspected crimes against the state since 24th February, when Russia launched an attack on Ukraine.
From the aforementioned cases, 922 involved the undermining of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, while 244 cases were considered treason for crimes such as the release of classified information to Russian services and/or military, for sabotage in 48 cases and 57 other criminal cases.
Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine underlined that many of the detained individuals came from territories that are temporarily under occupation within Ukraine or from other countries altogether.
According to the report, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has disrupted an operation by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) that aimed at provoking the local Hungarian minority to tear the region away from Ukraine.
The ministries have highlighted that most of the information about Russian activity was provided to them via the leaders of the Hungarian community.
Read alsoSurvey: Hungary could be the next Russian target
Hungarian and Roma victims of the 1990 Targu Mures ethnic clashes remembered
The victims of the 1990 ethnic clashes in Targu Mures (Marosvásárhely), in central Romania, were remembered on Sunday, at a recently erected monument in the cemetery of nearby Sangeorgiu de Mures (Marosszentgyörgy).
Mayor Szabolcs Sófalvi acknowledged the Hungarian and Roma victims of the clashes in March of 1990 and called not for revenge, but for work to ensure such a tragedy is never repeated.
A letter from Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó was read at the commemoration. In it, he said
the lesson of “black March” was that “people and nations must help, not oppose, each other in the struggle for prosperity”.
On March 19, 1990, a group of Romanian men armed with spears and axes were transported to Targu Mures to “protect” the city from ethnic Hungarians. The mob attacked the headquarters of ethnic Hungarian party RMDSZ and beat up several Hungarians, including well-known author András Sütő.
The next day, a counter-demonstration of ethnic Hungarians and Roma was organised, which drove the mob out of the city.
Five people died in the clashes and 278 were injured. Afterwards, the Romanian authorities only investigated the counter-demonstration, and only pressed charges against Hungarians and Roma, several of whom were sentenced to prison.
Read alsoWomen of the Hungarian Revolution period
Foreign Min Szijjártó: Hungary, Serbia form ‘historic friendship’
The war in Ukraine has highlighted the importance of peaceful coexistence in central Europe and it has also made it clear how important it is that Hungary and Serbia managed to turn a former hostile relationship into a strategic partnership and even friendship, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Saturday.
Szijjártó said that the main benefactors of this ‘historic friendship’ are the Serbian and Hungarian people on both sides of the border.
Hungary and Serbia consider each other’s ethnic minority communities as resources, while the two countries’ economies strengthen and support each other, he added.
It is “extremely important” in the current situation, he said, that the sides should contribute to ensuring each other’s energy security, adding that Hungary is getting a “significant share” of its natural gas delivered from the south.
Szijjártó noted that both countries will hold elections on April 3. Vojvodina Hungarians can cast their votes in two elections on the same day because the Hungarian government has made it possible for “every member of the nation regardless of their place of residence to participate in joint decisions on our common future”, he said.
Some 80,000 letters were posted to Vojvodina Hungarians in recent days and they can also submit their votes at the Hungarian consulate general’s office in Subotica, between 6am and 10pm daily or until 7pm on the day of the election, he said.
Read alsoOrbán: Vučić is “very precise, very determined and takes action”
Monument of Hungarian national cohesion inaugurated
Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s minister of foreign affairs and trade, inaugurated a memorial of national cohesion in Máriapócs, in northeast Hungary, on Friday.
Addressing the ceremony, he said that the April 3 general election would be “crucial, not just a decision between social or economic approaches but also a question of security or war.”
Szijjártó called on ethnic Hungarians living in Transylvania to vote “because the [Hungarian] left is trying to drag the country into war, and we have to prevent that”.
The Hungarian right has fought much to give all Hungarians a role in the decisions on the country’s future, irrespective of their place of residence, he said. Meanwhile, “the leftists tried to exclude Hungarians across the borders from our joint decisions,” he said.
Meanwhile, Szijjártó said some 300,000 voting documents were being posted to Transylvanian Hungarians. He thanked the Romanian government for helping the election.
Romanian Deputy Prime Minister Hunor Kelemen highlighted the importance of cross-border cohesion. The “paradigm shift” in Hungary’s policy for Hungarians across the borders in the past 12 years has strengthened that cohesion, he said.
Read alsoEthnic Hungarian politician János Esterházy “symbol of CE cooperation”
Roma spox calls on minority candidates to distance from the united opposition
The spokesman of the ethnic Roma minority in parliament has called on Leftist Roma candidates to distance themselves from the united opposition, which has put Jobbik vice-president Dániel Z. Kárpát at 10th place on its joint list.
“A leopard won’t change its spots,” Félix Farkas said in a statement to MTI.
Referring to opposition candidates Lajos Lőcsei, Sándor Berki and Ferenc Varga, Farkas said a place on the opposition list meant the candidates shared Z. Kárpát’s “views on Jews and Romas”.
Z. Kárpát “smiles as he uses the Hitler salute”, Farkas said.
As long as politicians with anti-Semitic views receive places on the joint list of the Democratic Coalition, Jobbik, Momentum, Socialists, LMP and Párbeszéd, right-wing extremism will always be present in the opposition, he said.
Read alsoOpposition confronts Orbán about drone in Hungarian airspace
Ethnic Hungarian politician János Esterházy “symbol of CE cooperation”
János Esterházy, a leader of Slovakia’s ethnic Hungarian community between the two world wars, represents a link between Hungarians and neighbouring nations, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén said on Sunday.
Semjén told an event dedicated to the martyred politician in Parliament that he was a “symbol of central European cooperation and of the shared history” that the Visegrád Group cooperation currently tries to build.
Esterházy’s “deeply Christian dedication” and support for national values made him a “true compass in the storms and inhumanity of the 20th century”, Semjén said.
The Rákóczi Association and the Esterházy János Memorial Committee decorated Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, with the Esterházy award.
Read alsoCan you guess who are the five most famous Hungarians?
After thanking the award, Erdő said that Esterházy’s career demonstrated that promoting Christian values in public life was always possible but only “if we are ready to” accept martyrdom if necessary.
Count Esterházy (1901-1957), the sole Hungarian deputy in the Slovak Parliament before 1945, was a firm advocate of the ethnic Hungarian community, raising his voice against any violation of minority rights and against discrimination.
Czechoslovak authorities arrested him in 1945 under the charge of war crimes and turned him over to the Soviet military authorities. In 1947 he was sentenced to 10 years of forced labour in Moscow and handed a death sentence in absentia in Bratislava on trumped-up charges.
Two years later, the Soviet Union extradited the ailing Esterházy to Czechoslovakia, where the president commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment. The count died in a prison in Mirov in March 1957.
