Hungary's president: May our determination to act be strengthened

Hungary's president: May our determination to act be strengthened

“May our determination to take action not only prevail in the new year, but also be strengthened in us, so that we will not be overcome by apathy and resignation,” Hungarian President Janos Ader said in his New Year’s greeting broadcast on several public media outlets following the traditional sounding of the Hungarian national anthem at midnight.

WORLD POLITICS JANUARY 1. 2022 13:37

The president quoted from one of the writings of the recently deceased world-renowned Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: “You can live your life as a chess piece, directed by external forces, or you can take the reins into your own hands. (…) You can see yourself as a victim all the time, but how different it is to immerse yourself in work with a sense of satisfaction.”

Mr Ader stressed that there were many people who did not give up, who overcame helplessness and discouragement in the past year, as well.

He said that for many, the beginning of the new year starts with a clean slate, a new calendar: “[on which] we look for the days of celebration, we mark family events, important deadlines.” But reality sometimes rewrites those plans, he added.

The generations before us had lived through multiple periods of war, when their lives unfolded in an unnatural manner, Janos Ader said.

As an example, he mentioned Sandor Marai [20th century Hungarian writer] noting in his diary how strange it was for him to leaf through a 1945 calendar during the Siege of Budapest [December 1944-February 1945]. During the worst months of WWII, everyone became accustomed to not making plans and not thinking in terms of the future. “Today, we are in a similar situation with the pandemic, now in its second year,” he said.

He opined that 2021 was a lot like 2020, with better and worse periods alternating according to the waves of the epidemic. The giant difference between the two years of the pandemic was that in 2021 the necessary means of protection were available.

“Vaccines have enabled us to save lives” and get through the epidemic with fewer restrictions, Mr Ader said, pointing out that Katalin Kariko, who developed the technology for the next-generation Covid vaccines, is today the most celebrated scientist in the world.

In his speech, President Ader urged the audience to think of all those “whose names we do not even know,” but who administered thousands of vaccinations daily, held the hands of the dying, operated social institutions, “protected our security, defended our borders,” worked the land and provided services.

The new calendar does not yet show the exact month, week and day when “we will finally be free from the oppressive, threatening burden of the epidemic,” but everyone’s patience, attentiveness and perseverance are needed to achieve this as soon as possible, Mr Ader said, concluding his speech with another quote from Sandor Marai: “Things do not just happen to people. People also do what happens to them.”

Fanni Weisz, an equal opportunities activist, was simultaneously signing the president’s New Year’s greeting for deaf and hearing-impaired viewers.

WORLD POLITICS

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Hungary, new year, president, speech