Potapi: Government to continue cooperation with western European Hungarian organisations

Arpad Janos Potapi told MTI by phone that he had addressed the general assembly of the Western European Association of Hungarian Country Organisations (NYEOMSZSZ), an umbrella organisation with 17 members.

Potapi thanked the leaders of Hungarian organisations in the Carpathian Basin and elsewhere in the world for their active work in encouraging voters to cast their ballots in Hungary’s April 3 parliamentary election. “As a result, a record number of 318,083 Hungarians voted by mail, 50,000 more than in the previous ballot in 2018,” he said. Potapi welcomed that close to 94 percent of them supported “the continuation of the Fidesz-Christian Democrat ruling alliance’s nation building policy”.

The state secretary noted that after the coronavirus pandemic, the government could re-launch its children and youth programmes this year.

The Korosi Csoma Sandor programme sending young Hungarians to teach diaspora communities around the world is scheduled start on June 15, Potapi said, noting that since its launch in 2013, the scheme has involved 661 grantees teaching in 29 countries.

Potapi said the scheme of weekend Hungarian schools will also be re-launched and camps and study visits to the Carpathian Basin for young Hungarians will again be organised.

The state secretary welcomed the establishment of the Hungarian Youth Council of Europe (EMIT), an umbrella organisation of young Hungarians in Europe.