State Secretary: Slovakia and Hungary Should Act United

The town of Kežmarok, Slovakia

Slovaks and Hungarians, regardless of nationality, must continue to fight for the same causes in the future, stressed Levente Magyar, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, during the unveiling of a memorial plaque dedicated to Sándor Petőfi (Hungarian poet and revolutionary) in Kežmarok (Késmárk), Slovakia, on Monday.

Speaking at the ceremony at the Kežmarok Lutheran Lyceum, the politician emphasized that in the coming years, Hungarians and Slovaks will face challenges that “require similar determination and an unshakable faith in freedom as was Petőfi’s.”

In the years ahead, we may need each other more than ever,”

he said, adding that the ideals that defined 1848 are still valid today.

One of the reasons for the Parliamentary Secretary of State’s speech on the need for cohesion is that the Visegrad 4 (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia) are now only functioning formally as elections have changed the general outlook of new governments, setting them apart. The recently accepted migrant quota is a result of the lack of cooperation between the  leadership. The group’s previous efforts to present a united front against the dominant, mostly pro-migration Euro-Atlantic mainstream seems to be faltering.

Levente Magyar stressed that Petőfi’s program was one that served the prosperity and progress of all the nationalities living in the Carpathian Basin. They fought for equality, free press, and people’s representation, he said, adding that Sándor Petőfi “represented the freedom of people to decide their destiny and to build a society based on justice and fraternity.”

“When everything that we have built together over centuries – our freedom – is at risk, we must put aside our disputes and look for the points on which we can build a common future, alliance, and friendship,”

warned Magyar.

Via MTI, Featured image via Facebook/Neoline-Kalandozás Utazási Iroda