Government Focuses on Giving Moral Recognition to Hungarian Diaspora

The City of Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, where the 17th Australian Hungarian Cultural Meeting was held

Support for the diaspora has only become commonplace in the last ten years, and the most important thing for the government is to give moral recognition to Hungarians living far from their homeland. This was the message from Árpád János Potápi, Secretary of State for National Policy of the Prime Minister’s Office, who spoke on Saturday in the city of Gold Coast, Australia, where he met with representatives of local Hungarians in the framework of the 17th Australian Hungarian Cultural Meeting.

“The government has raised the level of engagement with Hungarians in the diaspora to the level they deserve. Before the fall of communism, this was a topic that was impossible to talk about, but the situation has not changed much after the regime change, and we were the ones who dared to say that people living in the diaspora are a very important part of the Hungarian nation,” the State Secretary said in a telephone interview with MTI.

He pointed out that the diaspora is an important part of the nation, with almost 2.5 million Hungarians living in the United States, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere, which is the same number as the number of Hungarians living outside Hungary in the Carpathian Basin.

It is a great thing that we can support the organizations and associations operating in these areas with money to help them survive and make their existence easier, for which the people living in the diaspora are extremely grateful,”

said Árpád János Potápi. He noted that the motherland contributes to the running of weekend schools and scout camps, among other things.

In his speech at the 17th Australian Hungarian Cultural Meeting, the government official stressed that 1,150,000 Hungarians abroad have already been granted or regained Hungarian citizenship; the government supports Hungarian educational institutions abroad, from nurseries to higher education; and the Hungarian Diaspora Council has been holding meetings since 2011.

In terms of diaspora support, the renovation of the Hungarian House in Marsden is underway, contributions have been made to the Fillmore Scout Camp since 2018, and the Kőrösi Csoma Sándor program in Melbourne has produced two hundred pages of ethnographic teaching materials for teachers.

Hungarian artists and a representative of the Hungarian government attended the meeting, held every three years in Australia, this time in Gold Coast, Queensland. The last event, scheduled for 2020, was canceled due to the coronavirus epidemic. This year’s gathering was organized by the Hungarian Association of Australia and the Queensland Hungarian Cultural Association.

Among the Hungarian performers were opera singers Krisztina Szeredy and Győző Leblanc, Attila Pataky, frontman of the Hungarian band Edda, while  dance classes were held by Katalin Bíborka András and László Zoltán Varga, who came from Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár, Romania). Until Sunday, the event included a number of dance programs, various performances, an art exhibition, and gastronomy.

Featured photo via Twitter/Dean Johnson