The awarding body announced in December 2019 that Iohannis would receive the International Károly Award in 2020, but the presentation of which had to be postponed by a year and a half due to the coronavirus epidemic. The Romanian head of state received the honor for his merits in representing European values ​​and for his role as a bridge between East and West.

According to the committee's rationale, Iohannis led Romania with great strength and great success towards a pro-European policy based on the rule of law.

The Romanian president strengthens the European Union, stands up for its goals and urges the cooperation of the EU member states. His political performance since 1989 has been one of the most important steps forward towards integration. The Károly Award was presented in a ceremonial setting in the coronation hall of the Aachen town hall on Saturday. Charles Michel, President of the European Council (EC), praised Iohannis' methodical and principled approach in his warm speech at the event.

Several former honored personalities were also present at the event, including German Social Democratic politician Martin Schulz, former President of the European Parliament, Wolfgang Schäuble, President of the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag), former Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite and Herman Van Rompuy, former President of the European Council. . The prize has been awarded since 1950 in recognition of outstanding work for European unity. In 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron and in 2019 UN Secretary-General António Guterres received the prestigious award.

In his acceptance speech of the recipient of the award, Iohannis stated that he was annoyed by the statements of the neighboring state (Hungary) about Trianon.

At the round table discussion at the award ceremony in Aachen, the Romanian head of state made the following statement about "a neighbor that sometimes exhibits anti-European behavior and questions the borders of Trianon".

“I know for a fact that it is our neighbor, and I am even more annoyed than you by their statements about Trianon. I am the head of state, I come from Transylvania, we decided in a referendum, that is, we as a people said that we want to belong to Romania, we did not steal anything from anyone, it was self-determination, our right to self-determination. This is how Transylvania became part of Romania, Transcarpathia then also became part of Ukraine, and so on. But no one wants to reverse these, no one questions the historical processes. Maybe some populists do this, but these populists exist in Europe, and they can only be defeated by showing results," said Klaus Iohannis, whose position was meant to be a reaction to the statement when János Áder, in the framework of a conference on Ukraine, called Ukraine's territorial standing up for its integrity, he found it possible to say that the Hungarians understand the Ukrainian pain due to the loss of Crimea because we also experienced Trianon."

Has anyone heard of a referendum on the status of Transylvania? He was not referring to the disgraceful national assembly in Gyulafehérvár, where the delegates were ordered in advance to vote for the secession of Transylvania, but even there there were only 1228 delegates! What referendum? What is this Saxon talking about?

Source and image: mandiner.hu