Hungarian-Polish friendship will also be on the table in Tusványos, The decades-old traditions of Hungarian-Polish friendship will be discussed in two programs of the 32nd Bálványos Summer Free University and Student Camp (Tusványos), but Hungarian-Polish friendship will also be on the table in Tusványos.
The series of events of the 32nd Bálványosi Summer Free University and Student Camp will begin on Tuesday at Tusnádfürdő in Transylvania, with a wider range of programs than ever before, and with the motto "A time of peace" until dawn on Sunday.
The organizers - Pro Minoritate Foundation for Minorities in Hungary and the Transylvanian Hungarian Youth Council (MIT) - are waiting for those interested in "Tusványos" with more than five hundred social and entertainment programs. Almost seventy partner organizations participate in the organization of the programs. This year, thirty event venues were set up in the campsite on the right bank of the Olt river and on the sports field.
It was completely natural for the organizing team after the outbreak of the war that the next Tusványos should choose a motto indicating the pursuit of peace, which says that peace can only be achieved through negotiation, and no matter how long the road leading to it is, you have to go - Krisztina Sándor, political program officer and executive president of the Transylvanian Hungarian National Council (EMNT), explained to MTI.
As he explained: how the war affects the future of the East-Central European region is still a big question, the social effects are no less important, how people deal with the new situation, what fears it creates, what lifestyle changes can be expected.
There will also be panel discussions looking for answers to the extent to which the political scope for the enforcement of minority rights is narrowed by the war, and in other tents the economic effects of the conflict will be examined.
Krisztina Sándor pointed out: Tusványos has an established debate culture. He managed to bring political actors and analysts representing different points of view to the same table, this has recently manifested itself mainly in the Hungarian-Hungarian relationship, but previously the Hungarian-Romanian dialogue was stronger. The motto "time of peace" is therefore not only to be understood as a concept that compensates for the war, but also indicates that in the camp there is an opportunity for a clash of views and a meaningful dialogue, he added.
The program manager highlighted:
the free university has some "corner points". This year, the leaders of Hungarian interest protection organizations operating in the Carpathian Basin will not miss the national political round table on Friday morning, and on Saturday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and László Tőkés, president of EMNT, will give a presentation on the Petőfi stage. The moderator will be one of the founders of the free university, Zsolt Németh, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament, at the forum entitled "The Time of Peace".
The other two prominent topics of this year's Tusványos are national politics, many aspects of which are present in the forums of the free university, and the economy, where the energy crisis and energy security will be the most prominent this year as well. This year there will also be a roundtable on Hungarian domestic politics, but the event will also create an opportunity to discuss controversial issues between Transylvanian Hungarian organizations - the RMDSZ and EMSZ - as the Hungarian community in Transylvania faces four elections in 2024.
The decades-long traditions of Hungarian-Polish friendship will also be discussed in the two programs of the 32nd Bálványos Summer Free University and Student Camp (Tusványos).
At the event from July 18 to 23, the Waclaw Felczak Foundation will organize two panel discussions on this topic, the organizers told MTI.
One will be on July 19, entitled Europe will be Christian or not - Christianity in everyday life, László Kiss-Rigó (bishop, Diocese of Szeged-Csanád), Imre Molnár (historian, sociologist, Reconciliatio János Esterházy Egyesület), David Lloyd Dusenbury (philosopher , writer, research grant holder, Danube Institute, United Kingdom), the moderator will be Gergely Mohay, curator of the foundation.
The next day, on July 20, there will be a panel discussion in the Miklós Bánffy lounge entitled Trust in God and keep the gunpowder dry - Security policy overview in the shadow of the Russian-Ukrainian war, at which Michal Kwilecki (board member of the Hungarian-Polish Friendship Society of Wroclaw, Poland), Jacek Karnowski (editor-in-chief, Sieci weekly, Poland) and Attila Demkó (security policy expert, head of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium's Geopolitics Workshop) will be there, moderated by curator Mihály Rosonczy-Kovács.
The chairman of the board of trustees of the Waclaw Felczak Foundation, Karol Biernacki, and his deputy director, Róbert Zobolyák, will also visit Tusványos.
In addition to political and public events, the theater tent, university tent, youth stage, sports terrace, or the Kriza János Csűr, which provides a new venue for folk music and folk dance programs, also await those interested.
There will be no printed program booklet this year either, information about the events can be found on the Tusványos website and mobile application - now in both Romanian and English. The events taking place in the "main tent" named after Csaba Lőrincz - one of the founders of the free university who died young - will be broadcast live this year on the website and social media.
According to Krisztina Sándor, we should not forget that bears also "feel at home" in Tusnádfürdő. The settlement surrounded by pine forests has been visited by large game animals, which have proliferated since the hunting ban, for years. During Tusványos, the rangers are even more alert than usual, the municipality also takes all precautions for the safety of the participants, but everyone is advised not to set off alone at night or at dawn, and anyone who sees a bear should immediately notify the rangers or call the emergency number 112.
Tusványos is both a festival and a free university, which was created in the early 1990s as a partnership between Fidesz and the right-wing Hungarian youth movements in Transylvania. The Bálványos Free University, which dissects national political topics, moved to Tusnádfürdő in 1997: twenty-five years ago, the event was named Tusványos from the merging of the two settlement names. The political forum was supplemented with a student camp in Tusnádfürdő, which expanded the program offering with numerous youth events and laid the foundation for the continuous renewal of the organizing team.
Tusványos has become a multi-generational event, children's activities also allow parents with small children to participate in the programs, and they also try to put together the concert program in such a way that several generations can find something to their liking - Krisztina Sándor explained the secret of Tusványos' "eternal youth". Entry is free, only those arriving after 4:00 p.m. - specifically to "party" - must pay 30 lei (2,250 HUF) for a wristband, and a "concert pass" valid for the entire week can be purchased for 120 lei.
On the Petőfi stage, the concert program begins on Tuesday evening with the performances of Maszkura and the Crickets and Magna Cum Laude. Tuesday is the "zero" day at Tusványos, as the public events - of interest to the media focused on politics - begin on Wednesday, after the "official" opening. During the week, Pál Utcai Fiúk, Quimby, Anima Sound System, Vad Fruttik, Parno Graszt, Péterffy Bori and the Love Band, Republic and Ismerős Arcok will also perform at the 32nd Tusványos.
Civilek.info / MTI
Cover photo: Illustration / In the photo published by the Prime Minister's Press Office, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (s) gives a lecture at the 31st Bálványosi Summer Free University and Student Camp in Tusnádfürdő in Transylvania on July 23, 2022.
Next to him is Zsolt Németh, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly (b) and László Tõkés, chairman of the Transylvanian Hungarian National Council (EMNT) (j). MTI/Prime Minister's Press Office/Benko Vivien Cher
