Politician, writer, university professor Miklós Duray, who died in December at the age of 77, was buried in his hometown of Losonc.
Admirers of the defining figure of Hungarian community and political life in the Highlands said their final farewell in the Losonc synagogue, which was renovated for community purposes, and then he was laid to rest next to his wife, who died five years ago, in the former Reformed cemetery.
At the public farewell and the ecumenical mourning ceremony, public figures from Hungary and Slovakia also said goodbye to Miklós Duray, who died after a long and serious illness. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his wife Anikó Lévai, László Kövér, the President of the Hungarian Parliament, and Boris Kollár, the President of the Slovak Parliament, also took part in the ceremony.
At Miklós Duray's funeral, Sándor Lezsák, the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, said in his eulogy that Miklós Duray's life work testifies to the fact that the feeling of Hungarianness was deeply embedded in his nerves, that failures, prison, and harassment did not deter him from politics.
He stated that those who live through the upheavals beyond the Trianon border must suffer twice, and as he said, Miklós Duray fought a continuous, long struggle for freedom for the future of the Hungarian-speaking Hungarian community.
Iván Gyurcsík, one of the founders of the Együttélés Political Movement, Gyula Bárdos, president of Csemadok, Krisztián Forró, president of the Upland Alliance party, and László Gubík, president of the Alliance for Közös Célokért organization, also gave speeches.
The ecumenical ceremony held after the eulogies was performed by the Catholic dean János Zsidó and the Reformed pastor Alfréd Somogyi. At the end of the ceremony, the participants sang the Hungarian National Anthem.
The family was the first to join the funeral procession, followed by public dignitaries and representatives of Hungarian diplomacy. The burial and burial took place in a close family circle. The mourners paid their respects with a bunch of flowers.
Viktor Orbán had previously expressed his condolences in a letter to the bereaved family regarding the recent death of Hungarian politician Miklós Duray from the Uplands. In the letter sent to MTI, the prime minister stated: the Hungarian hero is a special type, he does not strive for individual triumph, victory over others, but even among the most difficult trials, he looks for a way to turn the destiny of his nation for the better.
Miklós Duray was one of the first to say that the Hungarians living in Slovakia are not a minority, but members of the Hungarian nation. "He resolutely fought for human and national rights, since the Lord had chosen this path for him since childhood. We will always be grateful to him, because thanks to his initiatives, the achievements of cross-border national politics that were considered unimaginable for so long, such as the Hungarian Standing Conference or the Hungarian identity card, were made possible," Viktor Orbán emphasized in the letter.
Source: Magyar Hírlap
Photo: MTI/Prime Minister's Press Office/Benko Vivien Cher
