The Preamble to the new Hungarian Constitution.

The Hungarian Parliment

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Hungary has a new Constitution. Many people, such as Paul Krugman, have been critical of this step. Some say that the  new constitution, which took effect on January 1, discriminates against Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and several Protestant denominations.    I don’t know enough about it to express a firm opinion, but I have to say that I really do like the Preamble.

We, members of the Hungarian nation at the beginning of the new Millennium, bearing
responsibility for all Hungarians hereby declare that:

We are proud, that our King St. Stephen established the Hungarian state on firm foundations a thousand years ago and made our country a part of Christian Europe.

We are proud of our forefathers who struggled for survival, freedom and independence of our country.

We are proud of the magnificent intellectual creations of Hungarian people.

We are proud that our people have battled for centuries to protect Europe and have, with their talent and diligence enriched her common values.

We recognize the role of Christianity in preserving our nationhood. Likewise we appreciate the different religious traditions of our country.

We promise to preserve the spiritual and intellectual unity of our nation battered by the storms of the past century. We consider the nationalities and ethnic groups living in Hungary as parts of our Hungarian nation.

We undertake to preserve and nurture our legacy, the Hungarian culture, our unique language, the man-made and natural treasures of the Carpathian-basin. We bear responsibility for our children; therefore We will prudently use our material, intellectual and natural resources, so as protect the essentials of life for future generations.

We believe that our national culture provides a rich contribution to the diversity of European unity.

We respect the freedom and cultures of other people; we aspire to cooperate with all nations of the world.

We profess that the basis of human existence is human dignity.

We profess that individual freedom can develop fully only in cooperation with others.

We profess that the most important frameworks for our coexistence are the family and the nation, the fundamental values binding us together are loyalty, faith and love.

We profess that the strength of a community and the honour of every person is rooted in work and intellectual performance.

We profess the obligation to help the poor.

We profess that the common objective of the citizen and the state is the achievement of good life, security, order, justice and freedom.

We profess that the true rule by the people can only exist when the state serves its citizens and manages their affairs in an equitable manner without abuse or bias.

We respect the achievements of our historic constitution and the Holy Crown, which embodies the continuity of the Hungarian constitutional state and the unity of the nation.

We do not acknowledge the suspension of our historic constitution as a result of foreign occupation.

We reject the applicability of statute of limitations to the inhuman crimes committed against the Hungarian nation and its citizens during the reign of the national socialist and the communist regimes.

We do not accept the legal continuity of the communist “constitution” of 1949, which served as the basis of a despotic regime; therefore we declare it null and void.

We agree with the members of the first freely elected Parliament, Who pronounced in their first resolution that our freedom of today stems from our 1956 revolution.

We consider that the state sovereignty of Hungary lost on March 19, 1944 was regained on May 2, 1990, when the first freely elected representative body of the people was constituted. We count this latter day as the start of the new democracy and constitutional order of our country.

We declare that after the decades of events of the twentieth century that lead to a moral decline, we have an eminent need of spiritual and intellectual renewal.

We have trust in the future we jointly build, the commitment of the young generations. We believe that our children and grandchildren will use their talent, perseverance and emotional strength to make Hungary great again.

Our Basic Law is the foundation of our legal system; it is a contract between Hungarians of the past, present, and the future; it is a dynamic framework, which articulates the will of the nation, the framework in which we wish to live.

We, the citizens of Hungary, are ready to base the order of our country on the cooperation of the nation.