Presidents of Croatia and Hungary Visit the Hungarian National Minority in Baranja
“We are still developing the history of our mutuality today through multiple interstate and interethnic ties, both through bilateral cooperation in numerous areas and through the European Union and NATO. But what is much more important is what happens at the level of everyday life, from mutual tourist visits and business meetings of our citizens to the particular role played by our minorities: Croats in Hungary and Hungarians in Croatia. Although their autonomy is primarily cultural, its effects are also political,” said the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović today, who, together with the President of Hungary, Tamás Sulyok, visited Kopačevo in Osijek-Baranja County.
The two presidents met with representatives of the Hungarian national minority in Croatia at the Hungarian Cultural Home in Kopačevo, in Baranja, after holding a meeting in Bilje with the leadership of the Democratic Union of Hungarians of Croatia, led by Robert Jankovics, a member of the Croatian Parliament representing the Hungarian national minority and President of the Democratic Union of Hungarians of Croatia.
“Baranja is one of those Pannonian homelands that we share in our two countries and in our almost eponymous counties, and it is a common home to both Croats and Hungarians,” said President Milanović, adding that this is only one of the indicators of our long shared history. “For most of our history, we lived together in common states, in which both Croatia and Hungary preserved and, through independent decisions, confirmed their state-legal sovereignty and their own cultural identity. There were moments when this cooperation was conditioned by military-defensive or political reasons, but it also continuously developed through mutual economic and cultural ties, through the contributions of Croats to Hungary and Hungarians to Croatia, with many great figures whom we consider to be our shared heritage,” said the Croatian President.
Speaking about the protection of minority rights, President Milanović emphasized that this is an important pillar of interstate and interethnic relations, confirmed as early as 1995 by the agreement on the protection of the rights of members of the Hungarian national minority in Croatia and the Croatian national minority in Hungary. “At the last session, held in April this year in Zagreb, the high level of protection of our minorities was confirmed. From the perspective of Europe, I believe we can say without reservation that these are politically exemplary statuses of our minorities,” said the President.
“Persistence in this will continue to be of the utmost importance for the development of our overall relations and a litmus test of the awareness that we are directed toward one another, regardless of individual differences in our national interests,” said President Milanović and concluded: “Croatia and Hungary, as two old European states, regulated at the highest state-legal level before many others, have the responsibility to continue developing the best possible mutual relations.”
After meeting with representatives of the Hungarian national minority in Bilje and Kopačevo, the two presidents will participate in Pécs in the commemoration of the Day of Croats in Hungary and the 30th anniversary of the Croatian National Self-Government and the 35th anniversary of the Alliance of Croats in Hungary.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Filip Glas