2 October 2017, Nagyvárad (Oradea)

Ladies and Gentlemen, Church and Lay Elders, Fellow Congregants,

I was glad to accept your invitation. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to take part in the Partium Christian University’s celebration of the new academic year.

There are three reasons your institution is close to the hearts of all Hungarians, and all three reasons are included in its name. Firstly, because it is a university. Hungarians have always regarded their universities with respect and appreciation, because they are fully aware that, in the competition between peoples, this is where it is decided how high in the rankings the Hungarian nation will be. The second reason is that it is Christian: this means that it openly stands up for values that have been forced out of the European mainstream, such as Christian love, justice and responsibility. This means that you are representatives and followers of the best traditions of both Transylvanian Protestantism and Catholicism. And the third reason is that you are undertaking the mission that throughout history has been embodied by Partium: taking the road to protecting the whole nation which leads through the safeguarding of all its individual parts. The science of interpreting Christian texts teaches us that we can understand the whole from its parts, and the parts from the whole. And today also we see that the key issues affecting the future of the whole Hungarian nation are reflected in the fate of its individual parts: we prosper or we disappear; we stand up for ourselves or we are assimilated; we preserve our own culture or we are pushed aside by newly introduced cultures. And we can clearly see that in the end the mother country and those parts torn from it will share the same fate. They will either weaken and wither away – together, or at least in succession; or together they will strengthen, become empowered and rise.

I learned something important from Bishop László Tőkés: we must always choose behaviour which creates circumstances over behaviour which is led by circumstances. In Hungary such a moment and opportunity to create circumstances last came about in 2010, when our two-thirds majority enabled us to launch our national unification programme.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Students,

What will the future that awaits you be like, and how productive will it be? Will that future be here in Transylvania? Will Partium be here? And if it is, will there be room in it for us, the Hungarians? Today these are the most important questions for Hungarians living in the Carpathian Basin. All we can say now is that every single day there is a broadening of the foundations on which the Hungarians in the mother country and you here in Transylvania – in Partium – are building your own futures. Today we have something to back us up: the hinterland is stronger than we could have imagined a decade ago. At home, 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. In only seven years we have succeeded in making Hungary a strong and recognised medium-sized European state. Dual nationality, a continuously expanding network of education institutions – from nursery schools to universities – throughout the Carpathian Basin, and the reinforcement of the power centres of Hungarian intellectual life across all territories inhabited by Hungarians: these are all the first signs of a rising Hungarian era. Today Hungarian policy on communities abroad is no longer just about protecting your rights. Today there are economic programmes ongoing throughout the Carpathian Basin to help you remain and make a living in the land of your birth. In addition, the strengthening of the Hungarians also contributes to the peace and prosperity of other peoples living in the Carpathian Basin. We are ready to enter into cooperation; and peoples in the Carpathian Basin who cooperate with the Hungarians will fare well, and are in fact already faring well at both individual and national levels. Today the Slovenians, Slovakians, Serbians and Hungarians are all developing while mutually reinforcing each other; and my hope is that Romania will also eventually take this path.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Students and Teachers,

Right here you are already seeing this new era’s dawn light. As part of this event marking the start of the academic year we are also officially inaugurating the University’s new building, which was made possible by funding from your mother country. In future the Hungarian government will continue to stand up for you and support your university’s operations, just as it has done so far. It is my firm belief that we Hungarians will only have a future in the Carpathian Basin if we succeed in bringing committed and well-prepared young people into the service of the nation. There will only be value to the work we have done so far if we manage to raise and launch the careers of young Hungarians who will continue the efforts begun by us – the generation before you – to unify the nation.

The Hungarian future is represented by those young people who are courageous enough to choose family, community and nation, and are courageous enough to choose traditional and well-founded European values over fashionable intellectual trends that mould everything into a homogeneous mass. The Hungarian future is represented by young people who think freely without the constraint of dogmas, and who do not allow their intellectual and artistic strength or imagination to be shackled. The future depends on young people who understand that if we want a Hungarian Hungary and a European Europe – and that is exactly what we want – then we must also want a Christian Hungary and a Christian Europe, instead of what now threatens us: a Europe with a mixed population and no sense of identity. I therefore encourage the University’s staff to raise courageous and well-prepared young Transylvanians who are ready for action: a generation with the vitality, courage and ambition to choose and build a future they deserve – one worthy of the history of the Hungarian people. As the Hungarian Constitution also states, we believe that you will make Hungary great again.

Soli Deo gloria!