By H.E. Mr. Oszkár Füzes, Ambassador of Hungary in Bucharest
“Perhaps not many a Romanian citizen knows that Hungary and Romania shares a common heritage when we mark on the 23rd of October the anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, one of the biggest appraisals in the fight for freedom against the former regime. Many Romanian citizens were actively demonstrating their solidarity with Hungarian revolutionaries and because of it suffered brutal repression, imprisonment and even death penalty.
For decades, the events of 1956 were taboo in Hungary, even to mention the name of Imre Nagy, the executed Prime Minister. I should mention here how highly Hungary appreciates the firm stand of President Traian Basescu and the Parliament of Romania against the crimes of Communism.
Of course it is not only history that we share. We should mention here first and foremost common values and principles to which we are committed as EU Member States and NATO Allies. Fighting economic crisis, and tackling our region’s challenges that are of utmost importance for both of Romanian and Hungarian citizens are binding us together. Together we are stronger in promoting our interests striving for a more prosperous Europe and a more stable neighbourhood while preserving the principle of solidarity, especially in a period when we face the sovereign debt crises, when we decide on the future of economic coordination of the Member States or the next multiannual budget of the Union that finances for example the social and economic cohesion focused development projects.
Based on these values, interest and particularly mutual trust Hungary wants a real, close alliance with Romania at Europe’s service. This partnership would be composed of promoting common projects, aligning each other’s positions based on common interest and providing support in achieving important aims and endeavours. Hungary is interested in the fast and full integration of Romania into the European Union. The most visible sign of this was when Hungary, as holder of the rotating Presidency of the EU exerted lot of pressure to have Romania and Bulgaria inside the Schengen area and I can assure you, we continue to do so.
When we speak about values or even competitiveness we should not forget the many cultural layers in the European Union, like Romanian and Hungarian, the values of which have to be preserved and supported. Hungary considers the Hungarian community in Romania as a common treasure, as well the Romanian community in Hungary that enjoys wide-range autonomy and self-governance. We appreciate the reforms for modernising Romania which would be in line with the common interests of the Romanians and ethnic Hungarians.
As closing remarks I should reiterate here as well that my Embassy and the Consulate General in Cluj and Miercurea Ciuc are grateful to the public and the authorities of Romania for the friendly co-operation in every field.”
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“His first ‘shot’ at directing occurred in 1956, when, in true D’Artagnan fashion, he gathered his ‘musketeer’ mates and decided they should take to the street together and stage a protest in the shape of a pantomime outside Scala, when he found out the Hungarian uprising had been suppressed in bloodshed. However, his hope they would be able to stop the Russian tanks by means of a theatrical play performed out in the street, in the very centre of Bucharest, was ‘suppressed’, in turn, by Grandma Eftalia, who barred their way, a rolling pin in hand…” (Adevarul: Andrei Serban, October 9, 2011)
