Hungary's foreign minister has said continued native language education is one of the greatest guarantors of the further existence of cross-border Hungarians.
Péter Szijjártó made the remarks in relation to the start of the new academic year of the previously closed Catholic Lyceum in Marosvásárhely (Târgu Mureș) on Monday.
“Marosváráhely is getting its Hungarian Catholic school back, which the Hungarian community rightly insisted on keeping," the minister said.
Minister Szijjártó added that one of the worst moments in the life of the Hungarian community living in and around Marosváráhely the year before last was when it became clear that the school would be closed down.
“Since then, we have conducted intensive negotiations with the Romanian party and had to employ many diplomatic tools in the interests of ensuring that we eventually come to an agreement," he said.
“The Hungarian government has always stood up for, and will always stand up in the interests of, cross-border Hungarian communities, and will continue to closely monitor events to ensure that all classes in the school are duly relaunched," the minister added.
Minister Szijjártó also said that the Chairman of the leading Romanian governing party, who is also the Speaker of Romanian Parliament, had promised that the Catholic Lyceum would be reopened, and this has indeed taken place.
The minister added that he trusts that, building on this success, Hungarian-Romanian cooperation may continue in the spirit of mutual respect.