While the nation policy measures implemented between 2010-2014 created a constitutional framework for uniting the Hungarian nation, the Hungarian Government has in recent years placed the emphasis on advancement in the native land, Árpád János Potápi, State Secretary for Nation Policy stated on Wednesday in Tusnádfürdő, at the opening of the 27th Bálványos Summer Open University and Student Camp.

This goal has been served by the year of vocational training, the assistance provided for Hungarian entrepreneurs beyond the borders, and several extensive economic-policy programmes, he added. Mr Potápi described the first such programme launched in Vojvodina with an allocation of HUF 50 billion as a breakthrough, one of the greatest achievements of the past two decades, which was developed in cooperation with Hungarian political figures and entrepreneurs in Vojvodina and the Hungarian National Council. A similar programme will be launched in Transcarpathia with an allocation of HUF 35 billion, and the Hungarian communities in Muravidék (Slovenia) and Croatia will also receive similar economic assistance in the near future.

“Hungarian communities and Hungarian families must be reinforced economically so that Hungarian children should have a future and should find jobs in their native lands, and to this end Hungarian people should be employed”, Mr Potápi pointed out. He expressed hope that, as a result of the nation policy measures implemented and the economic assistance provided since 2010, they will be able to reduce migration from these territories and to encourage the births of more children in Hungarian communities in the Carpathian Basin.

The State Secretary remarked: the series of events held in Transylvania which is commonly referred to as Tusványos is one of the most important nation policy workshops in the Carpathian Basin where a number of ideas were conceived – from the status law, all the way to dual citizenship – which later became law or were incorporated into the Fundamental Law.

Zsolt Németh, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, one of the founders of the Bálványos process, detailed the meaning of this year’s motto: We were, we are and we shall be at home in Europe. He pointed out: we were at home because the Hungarian identity is a European identity, and forms part of the continent’s common culture. We are at home because the Hungarian people need not be taught a lesson on how to be European, and even have the right to disagree with the current trends in fashion or with the arbitrary, wrong answers which the European Commission is giving to the current crises.

Mr Németh took the view that the Hungarians are not Eurosceptical, but Eurocritical as they do not wish to destroy something, but wish to play a constructive role in building a common future. The part “we shall be at home in Europe” indicates that Hungary and the Hungarian national communities beyond the borders have a vision of Central-European unity and of a Christian Europe which they wish to implement, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee said.

Tibor T. Toró, Vice-President of the Hungarian People’s Party of Transylvania (EMNP) pointed out: the “citizens” of the summer university seek an answer to the ever deepening crisis of Europe, and as regards nation policy, they continue to hold that the solution lies in autonomy. According to the politician of EMNP, the idea of Transylvanism is currently undergoing a Renaissance, and they are in the process of finding Romanian allies for the cause.

Mária Tárnok, Chair of the Board of the Foundation For Minorities – Pro Minoritate, which has organised Tusványos for more than a quarter of a century, said: participants may choose from hundreds of programmes in 24 lecture tents this year, and 34 partner organisations have contributed to the development of the rich programme of the series of events extending to the early hours of Sunday morning.

(Prime Minister's Office)