In a speech at an event organised by the Partium Christian University in Nagyvárad (Oradea) to mark the beginning of the academic year, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that “We are ready for cooperation, and peoples in the Carpathian Basin who cooperate with the Hungarians will fare well, and in fact are already faring well”.
At the event, which was held in Nagyvárad-Újváros Reformed Church, the Prime Minister explained that “The strengthening of the Hungarians also contributes to the peace and prosperity of other peoples living in the Carpathian basin”.
“We are ready for cooperation, and people who cooperate with us will fare well, and in fact are already faring well […] The Slovenians, Slovakians, Serbians and Hungarians are developing while mutually reinforcing each other, and my hope is that Romania will eventually also take this path”, the Prime Minister said.
According to Mr. Orbán, this is all the result of having successfully made Hungary a strong and recognised medium-sized European state. he said that dual nationality, expanding education opportunities and reinforcing the power centres of Hungarian intellectual life are all early signs of a rising Hungarian era, adding that “Today there are economic programmes ongoing throughout the Carpathian Basin that will help you to remain and make a living in the land of your birth”.
The Prime Minister said that it is significant that the name of Partium Christian University includes the words “Christian” and “Partium”. He observed that in his opinion the first word shows that the University stands for values that have been forced out of the European mainstream, such as Christian love, justice and responsibility. He noted that the second word refers to the mission that was embodied by Partium throughout history: “The road to protecting the whole nation leads through the preservation of all its individual parts”.
Speaking about the future, Mr. Orbán said that “All we can say today is that the foundations on which the Hungarians in the mother country and you here in Transylvania, in Partium, are building your own futures is getting broader every single day”, adding that “Today, we now have something to back us up. The hinterland is stronger than we could have imagined a decade ago”. He emphasised that “The mother country has pulled itself together and now stands on her own two feet: a work-based economy, a family-based society, patriotic education and a foreign policy based on national principles”.
Mr. Orbán promised future funding for the University, saying that in the Carpathian Basin there will only be a Hungarian future if committed and well-prepared young people are brought into the service of the nation. “The Hungarian future is represented by those young people who are courageous enough to choose family, community and nation, and courageous enough to choose traditional and well-founded European values over fashionable intellectual trends that mould everything into a homogeneous mass”, he said.
He encouraged the University’s staff to educate courageous and well-prepared young Transylvanians who are ready for action: a generation with the vitality, courage and ambition to choose a future they deserve which is worthy of the history of the Hungarian people, and to build such a future. In closing, the Prime Minister said “We believe that you will be the ones to make Hungary great again”.