House Speaker László Kövér said nations in the Carpathian Basin can survive only if they cooperate “as the universal successors of King Saint Stephen”.
Speaking in Veľké Kapušany (Nagykapos), in southern Slovakia at a commemoration celebrating Hungary’s statehood on Sunday, Kövér cited milestones of Hungary’s history such as the settlement in the Carpathian Basin, and the foundation of the Christian state. “Throughout history, every generation of Hungarians wanted to live under its own rules and freedom, and faced attempts by various foreign empires to eliminate that freedom, to chase Hungarians away or exterminate them. But even if the country seemed to be on the brink of annihilation, it had the strength to find the path of survival and start again.” “Withstanding attacks from the east and the west by empires that finally disappeared in history … Hungary always re-emerged on the foundations of St Stephen,” Kövér said. Referring to the situation in Europe, the house speaker said: “Private global powers concentrating wealth exceeding that of most states are trying to hold European nation states hostage … the same powers are trying to turn our ideals — peace, democracy, prosperity and a culture based on Christianity — into tools of war, dictatorship, impoverishment and anti-Christianity.” He said that only those states had a chance to survive against the global private powers that protected their national identity. “There is no nation without the sense of belonging together, and without a nation, nation states do not have the right to exist,” the house speaker said. After the commemoration in a local reformed church, participants laid wreaths at the statue of St. Stephen in the nearby park.