The Hungarian community and the Hungarian nation can survive if everyone in their own place participates in the building of the State in his or her own little way as a disciple of St. Stephen, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén said in Dályhegy in Slavonia, at the central St. Stephen’s Day celebration of the Democratic Union of Hungarians of Croatia.

Mr Semjén highlighted: King St. Stephen lives in the memory of the nation as a builder of the State, just as he truly was. „The dioceses and counties that he created exist to this day”, he stated, adding: the Hungarian community has survived because it has followed the path of St. Stephen, the essence of which lies in the fact that he was at once faithful to western Christianity and committed to national sovereignty.

In his ceremonial speech, he drew attention to the suffering that the Hungarians and Croats living in the region underwent during the 1991-1994 Balkan war. He added: the new cultural centre now inaugurated is therefore a symbol of the will of the Hungarians living there to survive. He mentioned the joint fate of the Croatian and Hungarian people as a second symbol. He thanked the Croatian Government, the county and the district for the grants provided. „We may observe here a miniature version of the joint Croatian-Hungarian community of fate that our joint statehood and the Croatian-Hungarian community of fate have demonstrated on a large scale since St. Ladislaus.

There may be „clashes” in daily politics, but the truth is that the dependence of Croats and Hungarians on one another which has been a determining factor for the two nations is unique, he said. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the cultural centre also stands as a symbol of the fact that the Hungarian State contributes to the survival of the Hungarian community here both financially and diplomatically in every possible way.

“The Hungarian community can only survive if each and every one of its constituent parts survives. If the Hungarian community in Transylvania, Upper Hungary, Vojvodina, Croatia or Muravidék (Prekmurje) were to disappear, the universal Hungarian community would be the poorer for it. In order for the Hungarian nation to survive in history, it is necessary for every constituent part of the nation to survive”, he stated. Mr Semjén finally promised that the small Hungarian community in Croatia may rely on the Hungarian Government in all its troubles and ailments, the same way that Hungary, too, relies on the Hungarians living in Croatia.

Sándor Jakab, President of the Democratic Union of Hungarians of Croatia called upon the Hungarians living in Croatia and their leaders to survive in their native land and to bear responsibility. „Do not seek to be great through the offices you hold, but make the office that fate or your electors entrusted to you great”, Mr Jakab said.

Before the ceremony, Mr Semjén laid a wreath on behalf of the Government of Hungary at the memorial erected in 2011 in the Dályhegy Cemetery in memory of the innocent Hungarian victims of the Yugoslav War, and inaugurated the Dályhegy cultural centre to which the Hungarian Government contributed with a grant of HUF 80 million. He further handed over the decoration Hungarian Order of Merit, Knight’s Cross, to Dr Tibor Szántó, member of the Board of the Democratic Union of Hungarians of Croatia.

(Prime Minister's Office/MTI)