According to the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office, in the past 30 years the Hungarian people have been given a chance to rebuild their alliances on the foundations of mutual respect and common interests. Gergely Gulyás spoke about this before a gala performance organised on the occasion of the national holiday on Tuesday in Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca).

He took the view that evidently the united efforts of Central Europe are able to influence European decision-making.

“Many do not like this, and they have a vested interest in maintaining centuries-long conflicts and intensifying discord,” he said.

Regarding the ongoing provocations the Hungarian community in Transylvania is subjected to, he said there will be no winners, but Hungarians and Romanians may fall victim to them together.

Mr Gulyás took the view that the work of St. Stephen was the creation of a home which consecutive generations can pass on to one another.

He likened this home to a house made of stone “to which each generation has made its own addition; sometimes a room or two have been detached, at times fire caused devastation, or we ourselves surrendered it disgracefully”.

The foundations laid by St. Stephen more than a thousand years ago have always been robust enough to build that house time and again, the Minister said.

He believes that for Hungarians 20 August is a day of hope come true.

It symbolises the fact that “the Hungarian state founded more than a thousand years ago has brought us to the 21st century, and this is true even if we are the most disadvantaged in consequence of the fact that the borders of nations are different from country borders,” Mr Gulyás stated.

He described this as an extraordinary achievement because, he said, we had to survive the attacks and occupations of foreign powers, “but also our own mistakes and sins”. Among these he mentioned fratricides, unworkable ideologies, deportations, forced labour camps, and the recurring attacks of those standing for self-surrender from 1920 until 5 December 2004.

Mr Gulyás took the view that culture is one of the most important means of the survival of the Hungarian nation.

“We had never before owed so much to those cultivating and fostering Hungarian culture than to the Hungarians in Transylvania, Upper Hungary, Transcarpathia and Vojvodina after Trianon,” he concluded.

Following his speech, Mr Gulyás presented the Kallós Zoltán Award for Hungarian Communities Beyond the Borders, which was established this year, to the Kincses Kolozsvár Association responsible for the organisation of the Kolozsvár Hungarian Days. The award was received by Balázs Gergely, President of the Association.

On the occasion of the national holiday in Kolozsvár, the Symphonic Orchestra of Musicians Beyond the Borders and the Purcell Choir performed the oratorio St. Paul by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.

(MTI)