At the event, Vince Szalay-Bobrovniczky said that the government is convinced that civil organizations are serious building blocks of the nation, therefore cooperation with them is a national matter.
The activities of the Civil Solidarity Forum - Civil Solidarity Foundation (CÖF-CÖKA) are important for the nation and take a lot of the burden off the shoulders of the government - stated the State Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office responsible for civil and social relations at the ceremony in Budapest on Friday, at which CÖF-CÖKA handed over the Intellectual Patriot Awards.
Vince Szalay-Bobrovniczky said that the government is convinced that civil organizations are serious building blocks of the nation, therefore cooperation with them is a national matter. Therefore, compared to 2018, the government has now quadrupled the support of real civil organizations, added the politician, the main patron of the award ceremony.
He said: the CÖF-CÖKA has carried out outstanding activities in the past decade and a half in order to establish civil, national governance in Hungary in 2010, and then to maintain it continuously.
By organizing the peace marches, establishing the science of "civilistics", and establishing the Civil Cooperation Council and then the European Union Civil Cooperation Council (EUCET), it continuously supports the government of Hungary, for which the organization is grateful.
He believed that there is currently a war of national defense going on to protect our sovereignty, in which people like the awardees are needed. In this regard, he explained that, in his opinion, the rule of law is currently being dismantled in Poland, and in this situation, no one among the European politicians who express their concern for the Hungarian rule of law on a daily basis is saying a word.
"But we will protect ourselves," said Vince Szalay-Bobrovniczky.
In his speech, László Csizmadia, the founder of the CÖF and the chairman of the board of trustees of the CÖKA, believed that as representatives of native European nations, it is their duty to take part in the politics of the continent, to build, not to destroy.
László Csizmadia, founder of CÖF, chairman of CÖKA's board of trustees, gives a speech at the ceremony of the Civil Solidarity Forum - Civil Solidarity Nonprofit Foundation (CÖF-CÖKA), where the Spiritual Patriot Awards were presented at the Novotel Budapest Congress Center on January 19, 2024. MTI/Péter Lakatos
He said that they respect the cultural diversity of the European Union, the sovereignty of the member states, and their activities focus on the triple unity of "God, home, family". Along this line, good and bad are distinguished. In other words, a caring government is good, but a government that hangs bankruptcy on us is bad. The combination of welfare-enhancing investments is good, but predatory privatization and illegal immigration are bad. Bonding with family is good, but LGBTQ sneaking in among our children (…) is bad. Fixed-term employment of foreign workers is good, but economic immigration aimed at taking over political power and migrant quotas are bad. A community of states based on the model of the United States is bad, he listed.
He believed that the European Union can be a true representative of democracy and the sovereignty of the people if it follows the policy of equal nations.
Political scientist Tamás Fricz, curator of CÖF-CÖKA (b), after receiving the Intellectual Patriot Award from László Csizmadia, founder of CÖF, chairman of CÖKA's board of trustees, at the ceremony of the Civil Solidarity Forum – Civil Solidarity Public Foundation (CÖF-CÖKA) at the Novotel Budapest Congress Center on January 19, 2024. MTI/Péter Lakatos
The 2022 Intellectual Patriot Awards were received at the ceremony by Judit Varga, chairperson of the European Affairs Committee of the Parliament, former minister of justice, political scientist Tamás Fricz, curator of CÖF-CÖKA, and Konrad Sutarski, a Polish writer, poet, and historian living in Hungary.
The fourth recipient of the award is the Italian Unione Generale del Lavoro (UGL), the Italian Christian-national trade union, whose representative received the award at the EUCET congress in Budapest last November.
MTI
Featured image: Judit Varga, President of the European Affairs Committee of the Parliament, former Minister of Justice (b2), Konrad Sutarski, Polish writer, poet, historian, Polonist living in Hungary (b), political scientist Tamás Fricz, curator of CÖF-CÖKA (j), laureates of the Spiritual Patriot Award and László Csizmadia, founder of CÖF, chairman of CÖKA's board of trustees, award presenter (j2) at the ceremony of the Civil Solidarity Forum - Civil Solidarity Non-profit Foundation (CÖF-CÖKA) at the Novotel Budapest Congress Center on January 19, 2024. MTI/Péter Lakatos
