Presidential visit to Temesvár, Kolozsvár and Déva

Dr. Tamás Sulyok travelled to Temesvár to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the 1989 uprising, before which he visited Kolozsvár and Déva.

In Kolozsvár, President Tamás Sulyok visited Transylvania’s Reformed Pastor Béla Kató, and thanked him for his 12 years of service. The President accompanied the outgoing bishop to the Farkas Street Church in Kolozsvár, where they prayed together for the Hungarian people.

The President of Hungary also met with Hunor Kelemen, President of the Hungarian Democratic Alliance of Romania, in Kolozsvár. The Head of State summed up the meeting by saying: „I congratulated President Kelemen on their electoral success and expressed my pleasure that future decisions regarding Transylvanian Hungarians will continue to be made with their involvement. The key to the survival of Transylvanian Hungarians lies in the strong and unified representation of their interests.

Tamás Sulyok visited the children's home run by the Saint Francis Foundation in Déva. The President of Hungary presented balls, board games and badminton sets to the children who gathered to welcome the President from several of the network's social homes in Transylvania. The children welcomed the President with a Christmas programme.

The Saint Francis Foundation, founded in 1993 by Franciscan monk Csaba Böjte, currently runs 52 residential and 20 day care centres in Romania, funded by private donations and public funds. In the three decades of its existence, it has provided care and education to some 6,000 children, abandoned or in difficult financial circumstances.

According to the Head of State, Brother Csaba is doing exemplary work in the children's homes he founded. He stressed that he was touched by the strong, living, cohesive community he found in the Déva home.

At the closing event of his visit to Transylvania, the President of Hungary said at a commemoration ceremony at the New Millennium Reformed Centre in Temesvár: "The free Romania of today was conceived in Temesvár”.

The guests of honour at the gala event to mark the 35th anniversary of the 1989 popular uprising were Hungarian and Romanian public dignitaries, including President of Hungary Tamás Sulyok, former Romanian President Emil Constantinescu, Temesvár Mayor Dominic Samuel Fritz and László Tőkés - the bishop who sparked the 1989 uprising. The guests of honour celebrated together.

"Freedom is common. There is no separate Romanian freedom and there is no separate Hungarian freedom", Tamás Sulyok stressed in his speech. He added that there is no alternative to community, to unity, to cohesion.

According to the Hungarian Head of State, the ideal of Temesvár teaches us that it is our duty to fight for justice, to always do our best. We cannot allow ourselves to be silenced - the President added.