Waclaw Felczak Institute director awarded high state honour

Maciej Szymanowski, director of the Waclaw Felczak Institute of Polish-Hungarian Cooperation, was on Monday awarded the Hungarian Order of Merit, Knight’s Cross in recognition of his efforts in promoting bilateral cultural and social ties, the Hungarian embassy in Warsaw said.

The honour was presented to Szymanowski by Orsolya Zsuzsanna Kovács, Hungary’s ambassador to Poland. In her laudation, Kovacs praised Szymanowski’s loyalty to Hungary “in these difficult times” as well as his merits in deepening Hungarian-Polish cultural and social relations.

In his acceptance speech, Szymanowski said he considered the award a recognition of the entire staff of the Waclaw Felczak Institute.

He also said he believed that “there have never been so many people working so hard” to tarnish Hungarian-Polish relations “at least a little bit”. He said the ties of the two countries, members of NATO and the European Union, made them “an island of peace, calm and rapid development, unlike western Europe, which we have overtaken by some margin in development in recent years”.

As we wrote a few days ago, the new chief of staff’s remarks provoked a huge scandal with Hungary’s oldest friend, details HERE.

Source: MTI