"The aim is to ensure that parents enroll their children in Hungarian-language schools," Árpád János Potápi stressed.Continue reading
“Everything we are doing today is actually for our future,” said Árpád János Potápi, State Secretary for National Policy in Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár, Romania) on Saturday.
In his welcome speech at the annual event of one of the most important Hungarian civil society organizations in Transylvania, the Transylvanian Hungarian Public Culture Association (EMKE), he stressed that the Hungarian government and EMKE are working for the same goal: that there would be Hungarian people in ten, twenty, fifty, and one hundred years’ time.
He pointed out that just as the goals are common, so are the successes, and that these should not only include investments but also a change of attitude.
Today’s children are growing up knowing that when we talk about the Hungarian nation, we should not only talk about Hungary in the narrow sense but also about the Carpathian Basin and even the diaspora,”
he said. Potápi said that since 1990, Hungarian national policy “has had its ups and downs,” but since 2010, it has been a success story. In the past 13 years, the Hungarian government has done a lot to strengthen Hungarian communities, and in this work, it is striving for continuity and predictability, even in the difficult economic situation caused by the war.
He highlighted the support for institutions of national importance and the National New Start Programme, and on education, the increase of the education grant to 100,000 forints, which will be available to pupils learning in their mother tongue across the Carpathian Basin from autumn.
Half a million students from Hungary have participated in the Borderless program so far, which is important not only for schools but also for tourism, he said. Its main benefit is that young people experience that it is possible to meet the Hungarian word and the “Hungarian world” beyond Hungary’s borders, he said.
The event was also an award ceremony, and the state secretary received an award for his consistent support to Hungarian organizations and communities in the Carpathian Basin.
Featured photo via Facebook/Árpád János Potápi