The role of the Carpathian Basin and the Central European region in European politics is increasing.
Balázs Orbán, the Parliamentary and Strategic State Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office spoke about this at a forum entitled ‘The Hungarian future of the Carpathian Homeland stems from our municipalities’ held at the Martos (Martovce) Free University.
He pointed out that the events related to the nomination of the future leader of the European Commission also demonstrated that the role of the Central European region in European politics is on the increase.
“This was the first time that the Visegrád Four and the Central European region maintained unity throughout, […] and as a result, we have managed to achieve the goals which we set both individually and together,” Mr Orbán said.
He observed that five years ago, when Jean-Claude Juncker was elected as head of the European Commission, this mechanism was not yet in operation; earlier the V4 “often found themselves divided”. The State Secretary said the 21st century will be a century of the rediscovery of locality.
“As a reaction to forced globalisation which only produces citizens without an identity, locality, embeddedness at a local level will gain in strength,” Mr Orbán stressed, adding that the entire 21st century will be about this, and this will also further the cause of the Hungarian people, including the Hungarians of Upper Hungary (Slovakia).
The State Secretary also spoke about the Hungarian public administration scholarship programme which was renewed in 2018 and has become highly popular since.
The purpose of the programme is to bring talented young people into public administration as earlier this segment was not popular among young people because it was unable to offer competitive terms and conditions, the State Secretary said.
Jenő Szász, President of the Research Institute for National Strategy assessed the situation of the Hungarian nation parts beyond the borders. He said the Hungarian community in Vojvodina is in the best situation among the detached nation parts, given that it has autonomy. He took the view that, due to the number of Hungarians living there, Transylvania has the greatest strength, in contrast to Transcarpathia where the situation is the gravest due to the ongoing war and mass emigration.
Mr Szász said regarding Upper Hungary that, compared with the other territories beyond the borders, Upper Hungary is in the best economic situation which has, however, made the Hungarian community there “passive”.
The President of the Research Institute for National Strategy said it has been demonstrated that while Hungarian communities beyond the borders are able to organise themselves politically, they do not have the strength to build strategies, and this, too, shows that in this the motherland has an essential role to play.
“Without a strong motherland, it is impossible to talk about a meaningful nation policy,” he pointed out.