The Hungarian national who has recently been reported kidnapped by pirates off the coasts of Nigeria is alive and well, the head of Hungary’s counter-terrorism force TEK told public television on Thursday night.
János Hajdu (pictured) said his information had been confirmed and TEK was working to rescue the captive. Answering a question as to how long it would take TEK to bring him back to Hungary, Hajdu said one or two months were “realistic”.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that six people had been kidnapped from a German container. Peter Doehle Schiffahrts KG said the ship had been attacked on Saturday. According to Reuters information, the kidnapped persons were from the Philippines, Ukraine and Hungary. The shipping company said the boat and the remaining 12 crew members had left the Nigerian coastline.
A late goal from corner by substitute striker Dániel Böde gave Hungary a narrow 1-0 home victory against the Faroe Islands in the final fixture of the FIFA 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign in the Groupama Arena in Budapest last night and ensured a third-place finish for his country in the final group standings. However, the Hungarian fans remained more than frustrated with the national team’s poor performances in recent games that broke the country’s World Cup dreams.
Ferencváros striker Dániel Böde (13) made the difference against Faroe Islands (photo: Tibor Illyés – MTI)
A tepid first half never really sparked into life, despite home-team efforts on goal from Eppel, Patkai, Ugrai and Dzsudzsák, only the first of which from the host’s captain troubling Faroes goalkeeper Gunnar Nielsen at all, but even that curling 20-metre free-kick was punched clear without serious difficulty. At the other end of the pitch, the Faroes created one moment of real danger when Gilli Sorensen plucked a long ball out of the air, cut inside and fired low towards goal from the edge of the area, only for Péter Gulácsi to get down well to his left and gather the ball cleanly at the first attempt. There was little else for either keeper to though in an opening period which remained goalless.
Bernd Storck shuffled his pack for the first time at half-time, bringing on Dániel Böde for Márton Eppel but the pattern on the match didn’t change, Hungary on the front foot far more but unable to break down a stubborn, stoic Faroes defence. In came attacking midfielder Dániel Nagy from the bench as efforts to break the deadlock stepped up a gear and finally the clear opportunity which Hungary had craved came to pass, a right-wing corner earned by Roland Ugrai and curled in by Dzudzsák landing at Böde’s feet just five metres from goal. Faroes goalkeeper Nielsen did extremely well to block the Ferencváros striker’s intial low, first-time shot but he couldn’t do anything about Böde’s second effort on the rebound which found its way past him and nestled in the net to give Hungary a precious lead they never relinquished, despite late pressure from the visitors
Bernd Storck, the under-fire German head coach of the Hungarian team said he was surprised by the negative atmosphere in the stadium. He said: “It is not easy to play football when our own fans support the opponent. I’ve never experienced such atmosphere before, I’m glad it did not have a negative impact on the team and we could win the game. I’m also disappointed with our recent results .We’ve finished third-placed, but we should have collected much more points. However, we’ve started reforms that need more time and players with international experience. The fans need to be more patient.”
Yesterday’s result means that Hungary secure third place in FIFA 2018 World Cup qualifying group B, well behind higher-ranked teams Portugal, who have qualified for the World Cup in first spot, and Switzerland, who enter the play-off stage as one of the eight best group runners-up. Hungary’s recent results also mean, that the national team will be involved in the C league of the UEFA Nations League, a new international football competition in Europe to be launched in September 2018. Hungary will compete against Romania, Scotland, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia, Albania, Norway, Montenegro, Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Cyprus, Estonia and Lithuania.
source: uefa.com
World Cup 2018, European Qualifiers, Group B, Round 10
HUNGARY–FAROE ISLANDS 1–0 (0–0) Budapest, Groupama Aréna, attendance: 20 000; referee: Reinsreiber (ISR) Hungary: Gulácsi – Fiola, Guzmics, Kádár, J. Szabó – Stieber (D. Nagy, 66.), Á. Nagy, Pátkai, Dzsudzsák – Eppel (Böde, HT), Ugrai (Sallai, 89.). Coach: Bernd Storck Faroe Islands: G. Nielsen – Naes, Gregersen, Baldvinsson, Jónsson – Vatnhamar, Sörensen (Bartalsstovu, 72.), Benjaminsen (Hansson, 65.), Edmundsson – Joensen, Faerö (K. Olsen, 88.). Coach: Lars Olsen Goal: Böde (81.)
“This is the first time I pay a visit to Hungary and I clearly see the impacts of the EU process on the country’s culture, institutions, ideas and education. At the same time I’m also feeling a fantastic intellectual buzz around here”, said Nobel laureate economist Thomas J. Sargent in a recent interview with Hungarian economy and finance news portal portfolio.hu.
The 74-year old US economist, who was awarded with the Nobel prize in 2011 for his “empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy”, and who is currently the W.R. Berkley Professor of Economics and Business at New York University, said that although the United States was a big country but he still felt that the region of Central Europe (Germany, Austria and Hungary in particular) represents the top of the world in terms of science. “I have met several Hungarian researchers and scientists in America, we worked together. Many of them had a great impact on my work, they inspired me intellectually”, Sargent said.
Answering a question about the future of the EU and the eurozone, Sargent cited former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who once said that the EU project was to be on the United States of Europe and it was a political project motivated by 20th century and earlier European history. The future of the EU is primarily a political question, therefore it should not be answered by economist but political analysts, Sargent said. “This is a matter for voters. You are asking me to forecast what voters are going to decide. I couldn’t forecast the U.S., I was completely surprised by U.S. voters in various ways”, he said.
Click to read the full Hungarian interview here and the English version here.
via portfolio.hu; featured photo: economics.rice.edu
Government spokesman Zoltán Kovács declined to say whether Hungary would recognize Catalan independence if the breakaway referendum were successful (Photo by Sandra Montanez/Getty Images)
‘This is called democracy,’ Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s spokesman says.
Government spokesman Zoltán Kovács declined to say whether Hungary would recognize Catalan independence if the breakaway referendum were successful (Photo by Sandra Montanez/Getty Images)
Hungary will “respect the will of the people” if Catalonia goes ahead with a referendum on independence on October 1, the Hungarian government said on Monday.
“The will of the people is always what matters, that’s the position,” Zoltán Kovács, spokesman for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s administration, told a press conference in Brussels when asked if Hungary had a position on Catalonia.
“That’s the internal issue for the Spanish and Catalonian people and it should be their decision, we all have to respect the will of the people, this is called democracy,” he added.
Pro-independence leaders in Catalonia are pressing ahead with their plan for a referendum even though the Spanish government, with the backing of the Constitutional Court, says that the vote is illegal.
Kovács did not say whether Hungary would recognize Catalan independence if the disputed referendum produced a result in favor of breaking away from Spain.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has vowed to do everything necessary to stop the referendum going ahead. Last week, Spain’s public prosecutor ordered an investigation into 712 Catalan mayors who have vowed to provide logistical support for the vote in defiance of a ban by the Constitutional Court.
In recent days, armed police have raided print works and newspaper offices in Catalonia to search for voting papers, ballot boxes and leaflets.
Hungary has settled its conflict with the Netherlands and the Hungarian ambassador will soon resume his post in the country, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in Tallinn on Friday.
Hungary recalled its ambassador to the Netherlands last month after Gajus Scheltema, the outgoing Dutch ambassador to Hungary, compared the principles of Islamic extremism to those of the Hungarian government. In an interview with political weekly 168 Óra last month, Scheltema said that Islamic extremism “applies the same principles to create an enemy as the Hungarian government”. In reaction, the Hungarian government decided to suspend ambassadorial-level communication between the two countries for an indefinite period.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the European Union’s Digital Summit in the Estonian capital, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said he had discussed the matter with his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte. “We settled the conflict between the two countries; in fact we like each other and we agree on many issues,” Orbán said. Hungary’s Ambassador to the Netherlands can resume his post in The Hague, he added.
On the subject of recent proposals to reform the EU, the Hungarian Premiers said: “We are still far from being able to talk about reform proposals.” “Right now, all we have is an intent to make Europe competitive again and there are a number of ideas on how to go about it,” he added.
Hungary is fighting to get Ukraine’s new education law repealed and its language and citizenship bills withdrawn, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said.
Ukraine’s new rules on education banning post-primary-level education in minority languages were signed into law by the president earlier this week. Ukrainian lawmakers have yet to vote on two other “dangerous” bills, Szijjártó said.
The country’s controversial education law, passed by its parliament on September 5th, states that its aim is to “modernize education”, through reforms to be introduced from September 2018. Concerning the language of education, the 7th paragraph of the law states that Ukraine’s official language in education is Ukrainian and the use of minority languages is allowed only in the first four grades of primary education.
One is a language bill that would seriously restrict the general use of minority languages and the other is a bill that would place strict sanctions on dual citizens, he said. The Foreign Minister added that, over the past year, Hungary has been pressing Ukraine to withdraw these three bills,
In a letter of response to the European Commission (EC) President Jean-Claude Juncker, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has insisted that the EC President’s “interpretation of solidarity conforms neither to EU law nor the historical traditions of Hungary”.
“Unlike some other major EU member states, Hungary does not have a colonial past,” the PM said, adding that immigrant countries had obligations arising from their colonial past. “Hungary is not an immigrant country and does not want to become one.”
Viktor Orbán wrote to Jean-Claude Juncker that he was pleased that the Commission President, in his recent letter to Orbán, had recognised Hungary’s efforts to protect the European Union’s external border. “Over the past two years, Hungary has been protecting the common borders by mobilising Hungarian resources, with a heavy budgetary burden, by building a fence and deploying thousands of border guards,” the letter said.
Addressing Juncker’s point that Hungary had refused some EU funds, Viktor Orbán wrote: “Hungary must always behave like a Schengen-border country, but for geographical reasons, migrants cross the borders of the EU of other EU member states, especially Greece. It is for this reason that Hungary has not participated in projects that do not make this issue clear, and it does not want to do so in future either.”
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in his letter to the European Commission president Hungary could not accept being forced to change. He wrote in the English-language letter:
The interpretation of the principle of solidarity described in your letter is essentially nothing other than the demand that Hungary transform itself into an immigrant country against the will of Hungarian citizens. This is not solidarity in my view but force.
The Hungarian PM said he was baffled by passages in Jean-Claude Juncker’s letter that drew a connection between the issue of migration and cohesion funding. “Such a connection does not exist; neither is it allowed by European law.”
“The Hungarian government’s view is that much of the cohesion funding lands with the companies of countries paying into the fund, so the economies of large EU member states have profited greatly from cohesion spending. This is also true of the opening of the markets of new member states.”
Viktor Orbán also expressed his “astonishment and incomprehension” at reading that the commission was disinclined to accede to Hungary’s request for border control funding. “It is my conviction that whoever refuses to support the fence, cannot and does not want to protect the citizens of the European Union.”
“Wherever there are mass attempts to cross borders illegally, without physical obstacles it is impossible to defend them,” the letter said. “If instead of defending the borders the European Commission only willingly finances measures and institutions for receiving migrants, instead of halting migration, we would give new incentives to hundreds of thousands of planning to migrate to Europe.”
“This is why I’d like to repeat the Hungarian government’s request that the European Union pay half the cost of Hungarian measures, including the fence, aimed at protecting the common Schengen borders,” Orbán wrote, adding that the costs to the Hungarian taxpayer had amounted to 270 billion forints (EUR 883m) over the past two years. “The fence and Hungarian border hunters protect not only Hungarian citizens but Austrian, German and other EU citizens, too,” the letter concluded.
via hungarymatters.hu and kormany.hu; photo: Gergely Botár – kormany.hu
On Wednesday, thousands gathered in the Transylvanian city of Targu Mures (Marosvásárhely) at a protest held in support of the local Roman Catholic High School, which was set to be closed by Romanian authorities.
As Romania’s Roman Catholics are overwhelmingly ethnic Hungarians, the move was seen by many in the Hungarian community as an ethnically- and religiously-based attack on the part of the government.
The move to close the Hungarian school began due to Romanian government claims (whose lengthy background you can read about in Hungarian here) that the school lacked proper documentation. This subsequently led to a case being launched last year against the school’s principal and the school itself.
The protest was organized by the Roman Catholic Status Foundation, and included leaders of both the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches of Transylvania, all of which have majority-Hungarian membership.
Major speakers at the event included György Jakubinyi, Archbishop of Alba Iulia (Gyulafehérvár) as well as Béla Kató, Reformed Bishop of Transylvania, and Barna Kapás, head of the Status Foundation.
Alba Iulia Archbishop György Jakubinyi speaking at the protest in Targu Mures (Photo: MTI – L. Gergely Boda)
Protest leaders called on the Romanian government, and on the Ministry of Education in particular, to issue a governmental or ministerial decree guaranteeing the continued operation of the Catholic Theological High School.
In his speech, Archbishop Jakubinyi said that this was a protest “in defense of our rights.” Quoting famed Transylvanian bishop Áron Márton, Jakubinyi added that
This is not politics; this is our life.
Hungarian Diplomatic Response
In response to the Romanian government’s planned closure of the school, the Hungarian Foreign Ministry summoned Romania’s ambassador for discussions.
State secretary Levente Magyar voiced the Hungarian government’s shock and told a press conference that the move was equal to
an attack against the Catholic Church, the Hungarian minority, children, families, and the restitution process in Romania.
Magyar also claimed that the Hungarian government would suspend its support for Romania’s aspirations to join various international organizations such as the OECD. At the same time, he said Hungary continues to consider Romania a strategic partner and an important ally.
Ethnic Hungarian religious leaders gathered on the steps of the Targu Mures prefect’s office, as part of a protest against the closure of the city’s Roman Catholic High School. In the foreground, a poster can be seen emblazoned with the message “Don’t Abandon the School!” (Photo: MTI – L. Gergely Boda)
He called on Romania to resolve the issue of Hungarian education in Targu Mures as soon as possible.
Magyar further claimed that, while Romania has repeatedly promised to resolve the problem, instead several hundred children and their parents have been misled. The Romanian side has rejected numerous proposals made by Hungarians and parents have been “intimidated”, he added.
Zsolt Nemeth, the head parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told a press conference held on the issue of the Catholic secondary school in Targu Mures that the ruling Fidesz party objects to “the Romanian authorities’ persecution of Christians”. Nemeth, of Fidesz, welcomed a demonstration held in Targu Mures and praised parents’ and students’ perseverance in protecting their basic rights. He also noted that the historic churches, interest representation bodies, political organisations and ethnic Hungarians in Romania have joined forces in their protest.
Nemeth said it is important that Romania should respect the right to church education, the restitution of church property and the freedom of religion.
Romanian Response
Initially, Romania’s foreign ministry responded by saying that Romania does not violate the education rights of either Hungarian minorities or Catholics, and by dismissing the Hungarian government’s stance on the case of the Targu Mures secondary school as election campaign posturing.
The ministry said Romanian authorities “regret” that the case of the school “has become a topic of the Hungarian election campaign” and that children’s rights to quality education are “being sacrificed for political interests”.
Arch-Dean Father Dénes Oláh speaking at the protest, organized by the Roman Catholic Status Foundation (Photo: MTI – L. Gergely Boda)
The ministry added that authorities were in constant dialogue with the parties involved to find a lawful solution to the school’s situation, warning that all educational institutions in Romania have to comply with the country’s laws, regardless of religious affiliation or ethnic makeup.
The statement said Hungary’s decision to tie the issue of the Targu Mures school to matters such as its support for Romania’s aspirations to join international organizations like the OECD was a “wrong and unfriendly” one.
A Successful Protest: Romanian Prime Minister, Education Minister Weigh In
On Thursday, the Romanian government’s stance softened significantly, with Prime Minister Mihai Tudose himself saying that his Foreign Ministry had issued an “excessively harsh” response to Hungary.
Speaking to Romania’s Digi24 TV network, Tudose said that he did not believe that Hungary truly wanted to prevent Romania from entering the OECD, and that if such would be the case, it would not be announced by a state secretary.
Referring to the school closure controversy, Tudose insisted that Romania would never close a school for ethnic or religious reasons, and described the entire affair as a “bureaucratic mistake” at the local level.
Criticizing his own foreign ministry, Tudose said that
While supposedly the cream of the diplomatic crop is there, there response was more reminiscent to that of a sports ministry. They treated it like a boxing match: if you hit me, I’ll hit you!
Following these comments, Liviu Pop, Romania’s Minister of Education, announced that Targu Mures’ Catholic School would not be closed after all, but rather would be officially placed under the rubric of the Hungarian-language Farkas Bolyai High School.
In a statement, the minister announced that children would be signed up for classes, and that classes should begin on Monday. The students and teachers would officially be assigned to the Farkas Bolyai High School while the ongoing legal case is still underway, but that neither the school’s location nor its teachers would change. In addition, once the case comes to a conclusion, Pop said,
everything will go back to normal.
Via MTI, origo.hu, transindex.ro, szekelyhon.ro, and magyarkurir.hu
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the World Judo Championships, held in Budapest’s László Papp Sport Arena (Photo: MTI/PMO Press Office: Balázs Szecsődi)
While Putin was officially in Budapest for the 2017 World Judo Championships (as he is honorary head of the International Judo Federation), he also spent his time at the sporting event meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, discussing areas of cooperation between Russia and Hungary.
In addition to visiting the Judo tournament, while in Budapest the Russian President also accepted the “civis honoris causa” (honorary citizen) award from the University of Debrecen in recognition of “the major role the Russian Federation and Hungary assign to the Debrecen University in the upgrade of the Paks nuclear plant.”
Meeting Between Orbán and Putin
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the World Judo Championships, held in Budapest’s László Papp Sport Arena (Photo: MTI/PMO Press Office: Balázs Szecsődi)
While at the Judo championships, Putin was seated in a box next to Viktor Orbán. There, during the competition, the two discussed the Russian-financed Paks II nuclear power plant upgrade project, as well as other points of bilateral cooperation.
Following the Russian President’s departure, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó spoke about the topics discussed between the two leaders.
First and foremost, the Foreign Minister announced that “the real construction work” on the Paks II upgrade will start in January, adding that “nothing will stop the investment from now on.”
While Orbán and Putin forged no new arrangements, they reportedly reviewed their earlier agreements. According to Szijjártó, the two agreed that “their joint decisions made earlier have started to bear fruit.”
The two confirmed that the Paks upgrade project, overseen by Hungarian minister János Süli, will begin in January of 2018 following lengthy delays.
Szijjártó said that the project will cost a total of $12 billion USD, $5 billion of which will be paid for by Hungary.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin at Budapest’s Ferenc Liszt International Airport (Photo: MTI/KKM – Márton Kovács)
In other Russia-related topics, the Foreign Minister ‘welcomed’ a growth in bilateral trade between Hungary and Russia. In addition, he noted the launch of a new direct flight between Budapest and Saint Petersburg, as well as an increase in Hungarian students receiving Russian scholarships.
Putin also confirmed that Russia was making efforts to supply natural gas via Turkey, Bulgaria and Serbia to Hungary and Austria.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister said that Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary would upgrade parts of their natural gas pipelines to allow the transport of up to 10 billion cubic metres of Russian gas by the end of 2019.
Speaking to Russian media outlet Ria Novostyi about his visit to Budapest, Putin expressed his satisfaction with the state of bilateral relations between his country and Hungary, saying that “I am happy, that I can discuss bilateral relations at a sporting event. Despite difficulties, economic ties are progressing well.” He also reinforced Russia’s commitment to financing the Paks II Nuclear Plant’s upgrade, and guaranteed $12 million USD of Russian financing for the project.
In addition, while in Budapest, Putin held an open discussion with Orbán, in which the two joked about their respective passions for judo and football, respectively. In addition, the Russian leader promised support to Hungarian economic initiatives in his country, saying that
We see our Hungarian friends and partners’ interest in working on the Russian market and we will do everything possible to support them and help them to promote their business interests in Russia.
Reactions and Protests
Protesters at the Momentum Movement’s demonstration against Vladimir Putin’s visit to Budapest, gathered atop Budapest’s Gellért (Photo: Momentum Mozgalom Facebook Page)
In response to Putin’s second visit to Budapest since this past February, various left-wing groups made use of the Russian leader’s arrival to voice their opposition to the Orbán government’s attacks on the EU and its perceived embrace of dictators and authoritarian strongmen worldwide (in addition to his meetings with Putin, earlier this year Orbán met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko, two leaders who, like Putin, have been accused of a variety of violations of human rights, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press in their respective countries. Erdoğan has also been invited to visit Budapest).
By far the most vocal and effective, however, was the recently-formed Momentum Movement.
Momentum, which officially became a political party this past March, came into the political spotlight earlier this year with its successful signature-collection drive for a referendum on Budapest’s bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games. The signature drive was a massive success, with around 266,000 signatures collected; shortly thereafter, the Hungarian government and the Budapest City Council decided to officially withdraw Budapest’s bid.
As part of its protests against the Russian strongman’s visit, Momentum posted Communist-era, “Moscow approved” street names around Budapest, a reference to the decades Hungary spent behind the Iron Curtain. The ‘new’ street signs were accompanied by stickers urging Hungarians to “not let this happen again.”
A sticker with a Budapest square’s Communist-era name, placed by the Momentum Movement in protest of Putin’s visit to Hungary (Photo: Momentum Mozgalom Facebook Page)
In addition, some Momentum protesters were in attendance at the World Judo Championships. There, they demonstrated against the Russian President’s visit by wearing shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Go Hungarians! Go Freedom!” as well as Putin masks of the style that have been used to protest against the strongman’s crackdown on his country’s LGBT community, before being removed by event security.
Protesters at Budapest’s László Papp Sport Arena (Photo: Magyar Nemzet – Dávid Balogh)
And on Monday evening, party leader András Fekete-Győr held a rally on top of Budapest’s Gellért Hill. In front of the city’s Statue of Freedom, which was lit up with a projection of the EU flag, the Momentum leader said that Hungarians were “tired of Hungary laying down with a KGB agent.” He further argued that Putin was no true friend of Hungary, but rather
a dictator, and a dictator is not a friend to anyone for whom peace, freedom, and Europe are important.
Fekete-Győr also expressed his party’s opposition to the Paks II nuclear upgrade. In addition, he claimed that
the reason Viktor Orbán is moving closer to Moscow, is that he wants to build up a regime of fear on the model of Putin.
Via MTI, Index, Magyar Nemzet, ria.ru, euronews.com, and kremlin.ru
Images via MTI, Magyar Nemzet, and the Momentum Facebook Page
Budapest, 2017. augusztus 20.
Felvonják a nemzeti lobogót az augusztus 20-i nemzeti ünnepen a budapesti Kossuth téren 2017. augusztus 20-án.
MTI Fotó: Kovács Tamás
20th of August, the day King Saint Stephen of Hungary, was celebrated with weekend-long festivities throughout Hungary. The national holiday commemorates the foundation of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary by the legendary king, who was canonized on 20th of August, 1083 by Pope Gregory VII. Festivities started in the morning with the raising of the Hungarian flag and continue on all day long, culminating in a spectacular fireworks display over the Danube in the evening.
Budapest, 2017. augusztus 20. Felvonják a nemzeti lobogót az augusztus 20-i nemzeti ünnepen a budapesti Kossuth téren 2017. augusztus 20-án. MTI Fotó: Kovács Tamás
BUDAPEST – In a time when most of Europe is in the grips of atheism, there is a nation where Christianity seems to not only be holding its own but some say is thriving.
Imagine a government that is unabashedly Christian, that thinks Christian values are worth defending, that wants to protect and even nourish the family.
Welcome to Hungary.
A Christian Nation
Hungary’s constitution is explicitly Christian and says that marriage is between one man and one woman and that life begins at conception. It even includes the phrase, “God bless the Hungarians.”
Hungary’s Faith Church, with 300 branches, is one of the largest Pentecostal churches in Europe, with 70,000 attendees.
Help for Persecuted Christians
And the Hungarian government has taken on the role of protecting Christianity. It’s even set up an office to help persecuted Christians worldwide.
When CBN News revealed the story of Sweden’s threat to deport Iranian actress Aideen Strandsson back to certain prison and torture in Islamic Iran, only one nation stepped up and offered her asylum: Hungary.
The Hungarian government says, “Taking in persecuted Christians is our moral and constitutional duty.”
Returning to Its Christian Roots
Hungarian policy analyst István Pócza says Hungary has only returned to its roots as a historic bastion of Christianity, dating back over a thousand years.
“Hungary wants to protect the European values, European Christian Jewish values,” he told CBN News.
Christianity in Hungary has survived almost 200 years of Muslim Ottoman rule and Soviet Communist domination.
Secretary of State Zoltán Kovács told us, “You have to stick to your traditions and legacies. Europe’s legacy is a Christian legacy, not necessarily in a religious form but most definitely in a cultural form.”
Resisting Islamization
And it’s this belief that has Hungary locked in a battle with the European Union over migrants.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Mihály Orbán has accused the European Union of trying to Islamize Europe, and Hungary has infuriated Brussels by building a fence to keep illegal migrants out.
Orbán has essentially told the European Union to ‘take a hike’ when it comes to open borders. Hungary has seen the terrorism and chaos caused by migration in Western Europe and has said, “not here.”
The European Union has even gone to court to force Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic to take in migrants. Mr. Oban has accused Brussels of “blackmail.”
“Securing the borders to stop illegal migration is indeed a solution, and this is actually the only way to reinstate law and order at the borders of the European union and not the other way around,” Kovács told CBN News.
Islam Matters
Kovács says it matters that most of the migrants trying to enter Hungary are Muslim. And he says Western European nations are paying a heavy price by pretending that Islam doesn’t matter.
“We’ve been living with and close to Islam for centuries in the past and we know about it. So, that’s why it does matter who has come in and in what manner people are coming,” Kovács told CBN News.
Orbán Is No Putin – Or Is He?
Orbán is often portrayed in the western media as a version of Vladimir Putin, an undemocratic strongman. In fact, at an EU summit in 2015, the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker reportedly greeted Orbán with the words, “Hello, dictator.”
Hungary is most certainly not a dictatorship. But Orbán’s critics accuse him of corruption and using the instruments of government against his political opponents, including the recent billboard campaign against billionaire George Soros.
Tamás Lattmann of the Institute of International Relations told us, “What we see in Hungary today is the shameless use of public money, of tax money to formulate pro-government messages.”
Bulcsú Hunyadi of the Political Capital Policy Research and Consulting Institute said, “Since 2008 the Hungarian government headed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been continuously weakening the system of checks and balances and weakening democratic institutions.”
But Orbán, a man who even his critics concede is a skilled politician, doesn’t seem to have a serious political rival, and he will probably remain in power, meaning Hungary’s standoff with the European Union over migrants is likely to escalate.
Is also means that Hungary will continue to have a government that thinks Christianity is worth protecting.
The Reformed School Choir of Pecs, Hungary travels in various parts of Hungary and to Hungarians living in the diaspora throughout the year. This is the first time that they will perform in North America. The choir is dedicating this performance to commemorating and celebrating the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. Currently, the choir is comprised of forty teenaged members and six adult teachers.
Reformed School Choir of Pecs, Hungary
NOTE: All the images below with a white arrow in the middle are videos. (The other images are just photos) You can click on the white arrow to watch the video of whatever is described. Make sure your speakers are on and you can make the video full screen once it begins by clicking the icon in the lower right corner.
The Choir gave a beautiful performance with selections in Hungarian and English at the First Hungarian Reformed Church in Walton Hills in the evening. In the morning they toured the Hungarian Cultural Garden.
Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén has labelled a voter initiative seeking the recognition of the Szekler people as an ethnic group independent of the Hungarian nation is “harmful and dangerous”.
“Szeklers are Hungarians” and “by the logic of this initiative” Hungarians could further be divided into various other ethnic groups, Semjén told MTI, stressing his opposition to the bid.
The initiative was either submitted “with good intentions” and “based on total incompetence” or “motivated by something worse”, Semjén said, noting that Romanian politics “has long desired to declare” that neither the Csangos nor the Szeklers are Hungarians. He said the bid went against both “historical reality” and Hungary’s national interests.
Hungary’s National Election Committee (NVB) approved the initiative on July 25. From then, the petitioner has 120 days to collect 1,000 supporting signatures for the bid, which will then be reviewed by the National Election Office (NVI). If the signatures are approved, the NVB will seek an opinion on the initiative from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The NVB will then submit the initiative together with the supporting signatures and the academy’s opinion to parliament for a vote.
Although the Szeklers has got their own symbols such as the flag, and “sub-national colors” of their wished autonomy in Transylvania, but they has got a strong Hungarian identity. After the Treaty of Trianon they became the biggest Hungarian minority abroad, as more than 5.000.000 million Hungarians became the habitants of Romania, after the maps were redraw. They are still there as the Encyclopedia Britannica writes: Szekler, Hungarian Székely, member of a people inhabiting the upper valleys of the Mureş and Olt rivers in what was eastern Transylvania and is now Romania.
According to their own tradition, repeated in Procopius’ De bello Gothico, they were descended from Attila’s Huns. It is, however, now generally accepted that they are true Hungarians, or Magyars (or at least the descendants of a Magyarized Turki people), transplanted there to guard the frontier, their name meaning simply “frontier guards.”
The right to an opinion questioned: UDMR/RMDSZ president Hunor Kelemen attacked for voicing the views of his party
Hunor KELEMEN, the president of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ) has been harassed for days in the Romanian media for declarations he made regarding the upcoming centennial of the 1918 Great Union, and is now facing threats from civil organisations, as well as individuals, who demand that his Romanian citizenship be taken away. Nationalistic rage is also rampant on social media, where the president of UDMR/RMDSZ is being labelled a traitor and a nobody, simply for expressing an opinion and reaffirming the position of the party, which was expressed numerous times beforehand.
The right to an opinion questioned: UDMR/RMDSZ president Hunor Kelemen attacked for voicing the views of his party
In an interview that he gave last week, Hunor KELEMEN declared, among other things, that the Hungarian community in Romania cannot and does not want to celebrate the centennial of the formation of the modern Romanian state. Spirits in the Romanian mainstream media instantly flamed up, with reporters and opinion-makers calling the president of UDMR/RMDSZ a traitor. One organisation, the National Coalition for Modernising Romania, went as far as threatening to initiate the withdrawal of KELEMEN’s Romanian citizenship. Such a measure would be both absurd and unconstitutional. First of all, as a citizen and as the president of UDMR/RMDSZ, Hunor KELEMEN has the right to express an opinion and to speak in the name of his party. Secondly, according to the Constitution of Romania, one cannot be stripped of their citizenship, if he/she acquired that citizenship by birth. Not content with this, the organisation demanded that the Order of the Star of Romania be revoked from Hunor KELEMEN, who, according to them, “questions the existence of the Romanian state, its laws, history, culture and national identity”.
Reactions on social media were also quick and more than hostile. An Orthodox priest from Vâlcele/Előpatak, Covasna County did not mince his words in a Facebook post, calling KELEMEN “a nobody”, “an odious anti-Romanian and anti-Hungarian”. Proving once again that anti-Hungarian sentiment in Romania can be instantly triggered and spreads like wildfire, he echoed the opinion of the National Coalition for Modernising Romania: “You are not a citizen of Romania! You are nothing but a Mongoloid viper who puts venom in Romanian and Hungarian glasses.”
The executive president of UDMR/RMDSZ, Bálint PORCSALMI, declared in a statement that “it is unacceptable that one does not have the right to express an opinion in this country”. The freedom of expression should not be conditioned on one’s nationality or the content of an opinion, especially since these statements made by KELEMEN represent the views of the majority of the Hungarian population in Romania, and do not in any way offend the dignity of other persons. In a country where political pluralism as a principle and human rights in general are guaranteed in the Constitution, limitations to the freedom of opinion should not and must not be allowed.
