This past October Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, listed these mortal dangers facing the Hungarian nation: “assimilation, the adoption of other languages and mixed marriages.” (Read here.)
Almost a century ago Hungarian nationalists thundered that Hungary was a lonely island in the “Slav Ocean” and warned that its unique language and culture would be swallowed by its neighbors. Now Budapest is promoting the very same dated nationalist (and racist) message. Orbán has stated that “ethnic homogeneity” is vital for economic success, arguing that marriages between Hungarians and Slovaks, Serbs, or Romanians are especially dangerous because they may reduce Hungarian influence in the Carpathian basin.
Zsolt Semjén Deputy Prime Minister has declared, “Hungary is a world nation.” Recently Péter Szilágyi, Undersecretary of State for Nation Policy at the Prime Minister’s Office, visited the US and declared that keeping “Hungarianness” must be the top priority in North America. Multiculturalism is dead; the future is in preserving the strong nation state, including Americans of Hungarian origin who are part of the Hungarian “nation-body.”
The reality is that multiculturalism is well and alive. In fact 29-year-old Nemanja Nikolic is a living example of that. Mr. Nikolic was born in Yugoslavia in 1987, in the town of Senta (Zenta in Hungarian) to an ethnic-Hungarian mother and ethnic-Serb father. Yugoslavia soon collapsed and the country ceased to exist. Mr. Nemanja grew up in the northern province of Vojvodina, part of the newly independent country of Serbia. He started to play soccer in a local club called FC Senta.
Mr. Nikolic seen here giving an interview to a Serbian TV station
In 2006, while still a teenager, he joined the Hungarian club, Barcs, and later the Hungarian teams Kaposvár and Videoton. In 2015 Mr. Nikolic moved to Poland where Legia Warszawa hired him. Two years later Mr. Nikolic signed with Chicago. Today he is the star striker at the Chicago Fire soccer team.
Chicago Fire just announced that Mr. Nikolic received the Most Valuable Player and Golden Boot award this year. He was the only player to appear in all 34 season matches and scored 24 goals (!), breaking a club record. Mr. Nikolic speaks fluent Serbo-Croatian, Hungarian and also English. He has a Serbian passport and in 2011 he also received Hungarian citizenship. In Chicago he trains under the wings of Chicago Fire’ manager, a fellow ex-Yugoslavian, Veljko Paunović, who was born in Montenegro. .
Serb-Hungarian-American Nemanja’s good friend is US soccer gigastar Tim Howard. Tim’s mother is a Hungarian-American woman and his father is African-American. Howard is a US citizen who also obtained Hungarian citizenship.
Mr. Nikolic with Tim Howard.
Mr. Orbán’s attack on „mixed marriages” reminds me of Germany in the 1930s or apartheid South-Africa. It is shameful and quite frankly hard to believe that in 2017 an EU member can openly advocate a racist policy against “mixed marriages.”
Our congratulations to Nemanja Nikolic.
György Lázár
Politicians may say whatever they wish, but they never stopped people from falling in love and marrying across religious, national and racial lines. And thank heavens for that.
It is natural for those who believe to represent a minority to be against assimilation and against mixed marriages.
It is quite natural for Victor Orbán to say so. He propagates ethnic homogenity and wishes that even the chambermaid in a Hotel should be Hungarian, so he is also against mixed marriages.
Soon we can expect big Posters: “Hungarians eat Hungarian Bananas and Hungarian Oranges. 🙂
Mr. Lazar, you should be aware of the fact that most cases in Transylvania, Vojvodina or elsewhere where Hungarians enter into mixed marriages, it results in children which will not identify with being Hungarian, nor speak the language. That is why Romania for instance had a massive program of colonizing parts of Transylvania where ethnic Hungarians lived, with ethnic Romanians, in large part because they wanted such marriages to happen, in order to facilitate the ethnic homogenization of the region. And fact is that it largely worked over the past 100 years. So, Mr Lazar, here we go again! You are on the side of those who pursue the extinction of ethnic Hungarian communities in places like Transylvania and elsewhere, where ethnic Hungarians were gifted to be the object of much abuse by Hungary’s neighbors 100 years ago. And you invoke such concepts as “racist”? You are the one spewing hate!
So a “successful” soccer player is a big example to promote and defend that “mixed marriage” work? How superficial and political coloured, but very predictable. It is a liberal left article.
It is already insane a guy like Tim Howard received Hungarian citizenship. I and most Hungarians cannot see him as a fellow Hungarian in the real meaning of the word.
He is mixed race and lives in the US and is the only connection is a Hungarian mother who made the mistake to get into a relationship with a black guy. That is why she divorced 3 years later. Most race mixed marriages end like this, this is a fact!
It is sad for those mixed race children who suffer for many reasons, because of the irresponsible behaviour of their parents. This is a fact too!
Gèza
O dear, dear, you are a primitive racist a la 1950s, not so often seen here. And ignorant too regarding :
– the divorce rate in Hun or regarding
– the ethnically (genetically) “pure” Hungary desired by Orbàn is a delusional fiction as there is a lot of Slav, German, etc blood mixed in.
Finally, what if the Romanian, Serb and Slovak govs copy Orban and introduce policies towards “purely ethnic states”?
First of all, there is no “purely ethnic state” law in Hungary. Historical minorities in Hungary enjoy cultural autonomy, education in their own language and so on. Not something that your heroes “Romanians, Slovaks, Serbs” are always known for observing.
Second of all, no one is talking about pure anything. We are just talking about preserving the distinct native culture of the Hungarian people. Its no different from Tibetans trying to preserve their own distinct native culture, or from Crazyhorse, who tried to do so in response to the colonization of North America by Europe’s overflowing population. Is the Dalai Lama “racist” then? Was Crazyhorse a “racist”?
And yes, intermariage can lead to a culture disappearing under certain circumstances. For instance, it was something that Romania tried to do intensely during the post WW2 period, by colonizing areas inhabited by Hungarians with Romanians, and by sending young Hungarians into areas outside of Transylvania after finishing school. I have a relative that was given the choice of only being able to practice her profession if she moved out of Transylvania right after finishing school. And sure enough, she married a Romanian, children do not speak Hungarian. So, yes, as Hungarians we can talk about intermariage as a threat to us, because it has been used as a tool in trying to wipe out our culture.
Géza, if you are a Hungarian citizen – as I am – you could investigate Hungarian citizenship law a bit before making such strong outbursts about facts. Anyone who has a parent who is a Hungarian citizen can apply for Hungarian citizenship (pretty easily). It may be insane, but it is not some special dispensation for famous sports stars. What you say about mixed race marriages comes to nothing, too: the majority (as in, y’know, more than 50%) of marriages end in divorce, whether they are mixed race or not. You may as well say that some black people are poor. Some white people are poor too! It is meaningless.
Geza and Peter,
Thank you for your thoughts on the idea of Hungarians marrying other races.
“He is mixed race and lives in the US and is the only connection is a Hungarian mother who made the mistake to get into a relationship with a black guy. ”
Should this now be regarded as an official Fidesz policy, ie marriage between “white” Hungarians and other “races”/ “ethnic groups” is to be discouraged and any off-spring arising from such a relationship should not be considered Hungarian because of their perceived “impurity”? Is that official policy
Astounding that Orban would attack “mixed marriages”. Is this for real? – This notion is in itself “anti-Hungarian”:
I have yet to meet a “pure bred Hungarian”, who doesn’t have ancestry not touched from beyond the borders of little Hungary! How idiotically absurd!
The pre-Trianon Hungary (that Orban laments) was among the first real cultural melting pots of Europe. So it is foolishly disingenuous Orban goes this far. Clearly Orban has been in politics too long for his own good judgement, when he can’t even recall the history of the Hungarian people.
Looking at the current Hungarian National Football / Soccer team, it is also clear there are a number of players who are not “pure” Hungarians – young Hungarian men who irrefutably have Slavic / Germanic / other backgrounds. Do Hungarians care? None that I know, because there is no such thing as a “pure bred” Hungarian! Hungarians love their Football / Soccer team!
(-> When Puskas played for Real Madrid, did Hungarians disown him? Dubious!)
As for citizenship though, I know many children and descendants of ’56 freedom fighter refugees who are not able to gain it. – With parents who are alive with proof of Hungarian birth it’s difficult, not to mention children of Hungarians whose parents LOST documents, and/or who have deceased. I should know – I’m in this camp.