2011-11-19

More than one hundred people gathered in the central park in Covasna to commemorate Ernő Fábián, the well known writer passed away ten years ago. A statue was erected in his honor with the occasion of the jubilee on Friday, the 18th of November.

Ernő Fábián (1934 – 2001) was a distinguished figure of Hungarian public life in Transilvania, his books, analyses and critiques remain a value for the Hungarian community here. This is proven by the large crowd gathered at the tenth jubilee of his death, amongst who elected representatives of the Transylvanian Hungarian community and Hungarian officials also appeared.

DAHR’s MEP Csaba Sógor took to the commemoration a note taken in 1984 from Ernő Fábián’s book “The ethics of example”. “I met Ernő Fábián first when I bought his book as a student. All my colleagues tried to find the book, but they were told at the book store that such a publication doesn’t even exist. So we passed my copy around. We were highly interested in the man, whose ideas frightened the regime so much” – remembered the MEP, who considers that we need people with Ernő Fábián’s broad perspective and energy to affect the thoughts of a nation, of a community through their example. The MEP feels that every line of the book has significance even today. He closed his speech with an idea of the author: politics should be governed not by interest, but by the appreciation of the truth.

Hungarian Secretary of State of External Relations, Zsolt Németh called Ernő Fábián one of the great thinkers of 20th century Transylvania, who can be remembered as a mentor. “Back then he was a professor and educator for generation of political scientists. He was able to identify the challenges his nation and homeland faced in the European and global context of the time. He had unique insights that are valid even today from the point of view of national and identity policy” – Zsolt Németh said. He then unveiled the statue together with Ernő Fábián widow, Márta Fábián and Zsigmond Lőrincz, mayor of Covasna.

The statue of Ernő Fábián was created by sculptor Mihály Vargha director of the Szekler National Museum, who used Ernő Fábián’s journal as an inspiration for the statue. Zsigmond Lőrincz, mayor of Covasna thanked all the supporters for the fact that Ernő Fábián “could finally come home”.

The ceremony continued with a commemorative conference, where the audience had a chance to better familiarize themselves with the work, views and efforts of Ernő Fábián through the personal experiences presented by the speakers.