Hungary and the Hungarian nation owe their coming into being and survival to great achievements, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office said on Friday in the Castle Garden Bazaar in Budapest where he handed over state decorations on the occasion of the celebration of the foundation of the state.
Gergely Gulyás said “our national horizon is as wide as it is because we are standing on the shoulders of giants”.
He stressed that “we have every reason to be proud that Hungary exists also today as one of Europe’s most ancient states, is living in freedom and is planning its future in which there must be a place for every single Hungarian, wherever they may live around the world”.
This is the fruit of the foundation of the state by King St. Stephen more than a thousand years ago, Mr Gulyás said.
He recalled that St. Stephen was the first to commit the law to writing and set an example for the fair and just application of the law. He organised public administration and combined the European warfare of the day with traditional Hungarian elements of combat, as a result of which he managed to emerge as victor also from the military struggles of his time.
“He envisaged the country in its own place and its own mission; free and independent,” he added.
St. Stephen made Christianity a part of the nation’s life, and “it is also thanks to him that Hungarian culture became European in such a way that, at the same time, it managed to remain Hungarian,” the Minister said.
Mr Gulyás also highlighted that Hungary regained its freedom three decades ago. “Despite all our disputes today, it is a blessing of this change that today this country is able to decide on the country’s future and fate out of its own free will, democratically”.
“Therefore, though there may be serious political disputes between us, we should not forget that those who speak about the necessity of a change of regime today want dictatorship in Hungary again,” he said.
He added that “at the time of the fall of communism, we returned to the path of a thousand years as an evident choice”.
“Our king St. Stephen, founder of the Hungarian State, connected Hungarian statehood and national sovereignty to Christianity,” he quoted former Hungarian Prime Minister József Antall, adding that the values that were indisputable at the time of József Antall’s government “have by now become not only questionable, but something to be attacked, something to be persecuted, it seems at times.”
“We, however, continue to insist on what we laid down in the Fundamental Law almost a decade ago, that we are proud of the fact that our king St. Stephen laid the Hungarian State on firm foundations a thousand years ago and made our country a part of Christian Europe,” Mr Gulyás said.
The Minister presented the Middle Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit (civilian section) to Kossuth Prize winner performing artist Béla Tolcsvay.
The Officer’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit was conferred upon lawyer Izabella Bencze, Member of the Board of Trustees of the Public Foundation for Public Service, choreographer-historian László Diószegi, lawyer András Egressy, founder of the Independent Lawyers’ Forum which initiated the establishment and coordinated the activities of the Opposition Roundtable, mathematician-university professor Alice Fialowski, Professor János Frivaldszky, Head of Department of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Sándor Gallai, Director of the Institute for Political Sciences of the Budapest Corvinus University, lawyer Professor András Karácsony, Professor Balázs Mihály Mezei, Head of Department, Head of the Doctoral School of Political Sciences of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, lawyer Anna Richter, founder of the Independent Lawyers’ Forum, lawyer György Sándorfi, founder and clerk of the Independent Lawyers’ Forum, and lawyer László Tóth, founder of the Independent Lawyers’ Forum.
The Knight’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit was presented to Petra Katalin Aczél, Director of the Institute for Behavioural Science and Communication Theory of the Budapest Corvinus University, sociologist-political scientist Zoltán Kántor, Director of the Bethlen Gábor Zrt. National Policy Research Institute, cameraman-film producer Tamás Lajos, Kálmán Lőrincz, founder-director of the House-Home Foundation, architect Ferenc Müller, architect Ferenc Sándor Oroszlány, architect Péter Puskás, chemical engineer-university professor Ágoston Seidl, György Szabó, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Heritage in Hungary Public Endowment, surveyor engineer András József Szepes, and Szilvia Varga, technical director of Hungarofest Nemzeti Rendezvényszervező Nonprofit Kft.
The Gold Cross of the Hungarian Cross of Merit (civilian section) was given to engineer József Almási, Lajos György Bendi, Managing Director of Tihany Fejlesztési Programiroda Nonprofit Kft., Ottó Brányik, honorary chair for life of the Buda Civic Casino Association, Tibor Lovass, Chair of the National Association of Local Televisions, Bianka Speidl, head researcher of the Migration Research Institute, and Éva Stánitz, head of the Public Health Division of the Vas County Government Office.
The Silver Cross of the Hungarian Cross of Merit (civilian section) was conferred upon Zoltán Sándor Palik, technical director of the Chance and Participation Nonprofit Association.