Zsolt Semjén takes the view that 2015 was perhaps the most successful year of the policy of Hungarian communities beyond the borders. The Deputy Prime Minister stated this on the programme of Kossuth Radio entitled Without Borders on Thursday.
In his evaluation of the year and the current state of affairs, he pointed out that all the programmes launched by the Hungarian Government in the past five years with a view to Hungarian communities beyond the borders are now working “seamlessly”. He mentioned as an example the Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Programme, as part of which one hundred scholarship holders have visited scattered Hungarian communities where Hungarian language classes and cultural events are now being held within the framework of an established routine. The organisations which have been set up „may serve as homes for every Hungarian”, including those who only moved abroad to work or to study a few years ago, he remarked
He added: it is very important to also extend this initiative to the Carpathian Basin. The Petőfi Sándor Programme concerns Austria and the Czech Republic as there are scattered Hungarian communities in these countries as well, even if we do not call them diaspora communities.
Mr Semjén described the launch of thematic years as highly significant as well, given that these „direct attention to specific areas, and focus the available financial resources on them”. He said: the first „fine-tuning” was when the emphasis was placed on vocational training as it is important that Hungarian communities should be able to stay in their native lands not only in a cultural, but also in a financial sense. This is possible if „they cannot only sing the Hungarian national anthem and cannot only have schools of their own, but can make a decent living”.
He highlighted on the programme that an unprecedented initiative had been launched in Vojvodina: HUF 50 billion has been provided for the purposes of economic development, partly in the form of non-repayable grants, and partly in the form of preferential loans. The programme simultaneously helps to retain the Hungarian community and permits economic growth. This growth significantly supports Hungarian businesses and entrepreneurs, and ties Serbian businesses and entrepreneurs to Hungary, he added.
The Deputy Prime Minister said that a similar economic development capital injection is intended to be provided for Transcarpathia, but the Ukrainian State is opposed to this. There is „partly a war, and partly a state of anarchy” in Ukraine, and therefore the relationship of Ukraine with Hungary cannot be likened to the Hungarian-Serbian relationship. At the same time, „the greatest problem [in Transcarpathia today] is the uncertain livelihood of the people”, and therefore this area will be the focus of the next major economic development project, he stressed.
Regarding Slovakia and Romania, Mr Semjén pointed out that, given that these countries are members of the European Union, other funds are also at their disposal. This is why the Hungarian Government primarily concentrates on Serbia and Ukraine upon the awarding of grants.
The Deputy Prime Minister said that „Slovak-Hungarian economic relations are thriving” in the former Hungarian territories of Slovakia, and within the framework of the Visegrád cooperation, political relations, too, are better than ever. He said: „it is an historic development” that Slovak soldiers came to help with the protection of the Hungarian border. This „lays the foundations” for also making progress on national minority issues over time, he said, adding: if the Party of the Hungarian Community obtains a seat in the Pozsony Parliament next March, this will be even easier to achieve.
At the same time, Hungarian-Romanian relations have substantially deteriorated, both on an inter-state level and between the Romanian political elite and the Hungarian community in Transylvania. Therefore, in this department, „we are compelled to report regression”, Mr Semjén said. He takes the view that this decline occurred during the reign of the Victor Ponta-led left-wing government when Hungarian-Romanian relations „were consciously ruined”, destroying all that which had been created during former governments.
The Deputy Prime Minister told Kossuth Radio that „if the centre-right finally pulls itself together” in Romania, there will be scope for cooperation between Hungary and Romania as well as for the more emphatic representation of the Hungarian community in Romania. He added: he has always supported reaching an agreement with RMDSZ, the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania, and it is his mission under the auspices of Hungary’s policy regarding Hungarian communities beyond the borders to bring together the Hungarian political organisations which are active in the given part of the nation. In his words, if RMDSZ failed to obtain a seat in the Bucharest Parliament, there is a threat that the Hungarian intelligentsia may integrate into Romanian parties. Therefore, as the Hungarians in Transylvania decided in former elections that RMDSZ is the strongest Hungarian organisation with the potential of obtaining parliamentary mandates, cooperation is “a national command”.
(Prime Minister's Office/MTI)
