The 9 June, Sunday European Parliament and municipal elections in Romania resulted in a historical success for the Hungarian ethnic minority, with the best results achieved in twenty years. As RMDSZ President Hunor Kelemen put it, the mandates RMDSZ won are not just numbers; they also send the message that there is a strong, viable Transylvanian Hungarian community that wants to shape its own future and plans on staying in its homeland.
While except for a few known pieces of the puzzle the story of the sword and its origins remain obscure, the Transylvanian Samurai sword of Thomas Kapustran is certainly a manifestation of the complexity and richness of Hungarian history. Despite being torn apart by two empires and enduring a century of wars, Transylvania still held a remarkable position in the world. So significant was its influence, grandeur, and civilizational level that it could procure luxury goods from distant and isolated lands like Japan.
Semjén stressed the importance of getting ethnic Hungarian representation in the European Parliament from Romania, and therefore urged everyone to vote for the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania’s (RMDSZ) ticket.
‘On 10 March this year, the author of these lines has only one wish: that a miracle may happen in the modern, so-called democratic Romania, and it may become like it was in the 1950s, or even like in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, in the 13th and 16th centuries. Because, if that happened, it would give freedom and autonomy to Szeklerland as in a true 21st-century European—and a European Union—country…’
The Roman Catholic Church’s charity organization, Caritas Hungary has provided some four million forints in aid to the families affected by a tragic boarding school accident in Székelyudvarhely (Odorheiu Secuisesc) in Transylvania. Caritas has also launched a donation drive to further help the victims of the accident.
Four Transylvanian friends dared to dream big and founded a sparkling winery in a small village in northern Transylvania a decade ago. This year, their Blanc de Blancs sparkling wine was recognized with a world championship title at the Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships.
The Hungarian-language version of the Brussels-based news site has since changed the title of their article. However, the cached version of their horrible faux pas is still available through a simple Google search.
Although the unification made the dream of the Romanians come true, the aspirations of Transylvanian Hungarians for self-determination were ignored. The annexation of Transylvania to Romania was finally enshrined by the Treaty of Paris.
From September onwards, the Rákóczi Association will operate 58 school buses in Transylvania, helping more than 720 ethnic Hungarian children reach school in 48 settlements. The operation of the buses will cost 231 million forints per academic year, which will be covered by the Hungarian state, thus school attendance will impose no financial burden on the families or schools.
Géza Szőcs, a Transylvanian Hungarian poet, writer, public intellectual and politician, who resisted the oppression of the Romanian communist dictatorship, was born exactly 70 years ago today.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.