We can only survive by uniting our forces, Szabolcs Takács, State Secretary for EU Affairs at the Prime Minister’s Office stressed in his speech delivered on Friday in Zagreb on the occasion of the 15 March celebrations. In his speech he thanked the small Hungarian community living in Croatia for its perseverance and Zagreb for taking care of this part of the Hungarian nation.

The State Secretary highlighted in his speech delivered at the ceremonial event of the Hungarian Embassy in Zagreb: „we can only survive, grow and prosper by uniting our forces; short-term interests never serve the best interests of the community and the nation”.

Mr Takács advised the Hungarians living in Croatia to appreciate the freedom which they enjoy in the Republic of Croatia. He asked them to make every effort as far as their possibilities allow to also take responsibility for the Hungarian generations to come, and to be guided in every one of their actions by the desire that their successors, too, should grow up under the spell of the Hungarian language and imbued with the ideal of Hungarian freedom.

Hungary has always stood up for Croatia, also at the time when it acknowledged Croatia’s independence at the end of the last century and at the time when it supported Croatia’s accession to the European Union, he stressed. „Hungary keeps track of the situation, and is grateful to Croatia for paying attention to the Hungarian community in Croatia (…) and for providing cultural autonomy for them”, he underlined.

Commemorations will be held in several localities in Croatia by the Hungarians living there on the occasion of the anniversary of the 1848-49 revolution and freedom fight. On Friday representatives of Hungarian civil society organisations and minority governments in Croatia jointly laid a wreath at Sándor Petőfi’s memorial plaque on the wall of the former hospital building in Zagreb where the poet spent a few days when taken ill during his military service in Károlyváros (Karlovac). A ceremony and a reception organised by the Ady Endre Hungarian Cultural Club and the Hungarian Embassy in Zagreb were held at the headquarters of the Club.

(Prime Minister's Office/MTI)