The fact that the municipality of Zugló in Budapest sent an invitation in English to the district's birthday events in its sister settlement, Csíkcsicsó, caused a scandal in Hungary. Péter Lukács, the mayor of Csicó, did not believe it at first, and later was surprised that they received the invitation in English, even though it is natural for him that sister settlements communicate with each other in the other's native language. As he said, for example, they send the invitation to their sister settlement in Poland in Polish.
"Csíkcsicsó (Ciceu in Romanian) village in Hargita County, Romania, an independent village since 2004. The settlement with a population of 3,000 and an almost entirely Hungarian population is located 5 km north of Csíkszereda, at the confluence of the Szépvíz stream with the Oltba. In 2011, on the occasion of Zugló's birthday, our district signed the sister city cooperation agreement with Csíkcsicso. In addition to the annual visit of the delegations, the main goal is to strengthen cultural relations," says the website of the Zugló municipality on the page describing their sister settlements.
However, the current Zugló municipality sent an invitation in English to the town with an almost entirely Hungarian population for its series of birthday events in early October.
As soon as this came to light, a minor scandal arose in Hungary, on Wednesday Gabriella Dódity, on behalf of the Fidesz-KDNP faction in the capital, handed over a volume entitled Trianon 100 to MSZP politician Csaba Horváth, the mayor of Zugló, because of the invitation in English.
This was reported by Hungarian news portals, including hirado.hu, mandiner.hu, magyarnemzet.hu and hvg.hu. asked Péter Lukács, the mayor of Csíkcsicsó, about the history of the story .
Surprising and hurtful
Budapest XIV. twelve years ago, Csíkcsícsó signed a sister settlement agreement with his district, Zugló, with the Fidesz mayor Ferenc Papcsák at the time. Later, during the reign of Gergely Karácsony, it slowly grew colder, and recently, especially during the coronavirus epidemic, the live relationship between the two settlements has almost completely stopped, except for the Fidesz faction, with whom the relationship that can be called friends has remained throughout.
Despite the estrangement, Zugló was always invited to the events in Csíkcsicsó, so in September they were also invited by Zugló to the celebration organized on the occasion of the 87th anniversary of its founding. But in English.
At first I thought it was misplaced or a general email, but then I realized it was only addressed to us, meant only for us
Péter Lukács shared. The head of the village of Csíkcsicsó was surprised by the use of a foreign language, it affected him in the same way as the referendum in Hungary on December 5, 2004, when Hungarians from Transylvania were denied dual citizenship.
As he said, they always make sure that in their letters to their sister settlements they communicate with them in their mother tongue, they write in Polish to those in Poland, in German to those in Germany, and in Hungarian to those in Hungary. It is natural and fair for him. He added,
he then tried to take the incident in a funny way, so he remarked humorously that from now on the invitations will be sent to the people of Zugló in English.
The XIV. anyway, they did not talk to the district mayor after the incident, he believes that the mayor was not necessarily responsible for this, it was probably the device that was at fault. Despite the strange invitation, the village head honored the celebration in Zugló with his presence.
The spokesperson of the Zugló municipality told the Magyarnemzet.hu portal only that they acted in accordance with diplomatic rules when they sent an invitation in English to the mayor of their sister municipality in Székelyföld.
In our opening picture: Péter Lukács, the mayor of Csíkcsicsó, communicates with their sister towns in their mother tongue, but Zugló sent them an invitation in English
Author: Barabás Hajnal Source: Székelyhon.ro