DECLARATION OF THE BOARD OF THE SZÉCHENYI ACADEMY OF LETTERS AND ARTS

We condemn the views of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in his speech on July 23, 2022. We regard them to be a violation of universal human rights. His words, evoking the spirit of the third Hungarian anti-Jewish law of 1941 – that prohibited marriage and criminalized sexual relationship between Jewish and non-Jewish Hungarian citizens – are scientifically and culturally unacceptable, politically and ideologically alarming. We protest against the Prime Minister of Hungary discriminating between people based on their origin and culture. Our conviction is that social existence rests on communication and contact (to quote his word, ’mixing’) between people and groups of people. This is the source of all scientific, cultural and spiritual development. Racist and ethnicity-based politics means the denial of human equality. It leads to discrimination, incitement, verbal and physical violence and – as the history of Hungary in the twentieth century and today’s Russian aggression against Ukraine prove – ultimately to bloodshed. That is why we find it vital to emphasize that the terminology of Nazi ideology cannot be used ambiguously: the use of such words is never independent of the ideology itself.

Budapest, July 28, 2022.

Dóra Maurer, president
Győző Ferencz, executive president
István Haász, head of Fine and Applied Arts Dept.
Géza D. Hegedűs, head of Motion Picture and Theatre Dept.
Imre Flóra, head of Literature Dept.
László Tihanyi, head of Musical Arts Dept.
Barnabás Winkler, head of Architecture Dept.
Zsófia Csomay, board member
Károly Klimó, board member

Link to the Hungarian language original:

https://mta.hu/szima/a-szechenyi-irodalmi-es-muveszeti-akademia-vezetosegenek-nyilatkozata-112311