Árpád János Potápi did his utmost to ensure that national unity would become a tangible reality for all Hungarians.Continue reading
Árpád János Potápi, who died on October 17, at the age of 57, was buried on Thursday. The Secretary of State for National Policy of the Prime Minister’s Office was escorted to his final resting place by hundreds of people in the Evangelical cemetery of Bonyhád (southwestern Hungary).
Speaking at the funeral, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén said that Árpád János Potápi ‘s name had been “inscribed in the history of national politics and thus in the history of the Hungarian nation.” He was Hungarian and Christian, and the national policy we represent is not only Hungarian, but also Christian, he added.
Because “every nation is a thought of God, unique and unrepeatable, nothing can give the richness of values that (…) Hungarians are, only Hungarians,” the politician emphasized. He pointed out that we Hungarians have a primary duty towards universal humanity to preserve, develop, and promote our Hungarianness.
Árpád represented this Christian national idea, respecting all nations and the mission to preserve the Hungarian nation,”
he highlighted.
The Deputy Prime Minister described the late politician as having a distinctive character of modesty, lacking in hubris, and taking a back seat in national politics. “Rest in peace, but help us from over there,” concluded Semjén.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Speaker of the National Assembly László Kövér, Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyás, former Presidents János Áder and Katalin Novák, and Hunor Kelemen, President of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania, among others, bid farewell to the late State Secretary.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his wife Anikó Lévai. Photo: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher
The politician was buried according to Catholic rites, with a funeral mass in his memory at the Immaculate Conception Church, presided over by László Felföldi, Bishop of Pécs. In his eulogy, the Bishop said that Árpád János Potápi not only knew, but also served the Hungarian people of the Carpathian Basin and our common national goals.
Bishop László Felföldi. Photo: MTI/Ujvári Sándor
Árpád János Potápi was born on March 28, 1967, in Bonyhád. He graduated from the Petőfi Sándor High School in the town in 1985. In 1991, he obtained a degree in Hungarian Language and Literature and History at the Gyula Juhász Teacher Training College in Szeged (southern Hungary), and in 1994, he graduated with a degree in History from Eötvös Loránd University. From 1991 to 1998, he worked as a teacher. From 1998 to 2011, he was the President of the National Association of Szeklers from Bukovina and from 2002 to 2014, he served as Mayor of Bonyhád.
He entered politics in 1993, and was the campaign manager for Fidesz in Bonyhád in the 1994 parliamentary elections. From 2007, he was the chairman of the Tolna County Election Committee, and from 2011 until April 2014, he was a deputy leader of the Fidesz parliamentary group. Since 1998, he has been an individual Member of Parliament. Between 2011 and 2014, he was Chairman of the Committee of National Cohesion of the National Assembly.
He served as Secretary of State for National Policy from June 15, 2014, until his death on October 17, 2024.
Photo: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher
Via MTI; Featured image via MTI/Ujvári Sándor