Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and House Speaker László Kövér have paid tribute to István Pásztor, head of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (VMSZ), who died on Monday. Pásztor died at the age of 67 after a short, serious illness, his son Bálint Pásztor said on social media.
“He went the way of the warriors. God rest István Pásztor,” PM Orbán said of Pásztor in a post on Facebook. PM Orbán posted a photo of himself with Pásztor with the words “Farewell, my friend.” Speaker of Parliament László Kövér expressed his condolences to Pásztor’s son, Bálint. In his message, Kövér referred to the deceased politician as “a revered representative of Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin … who was an example to us all of perseverance and commitment.” Pásztor worked to ensure education in Hungarian, a multitude of developments and preservation of historic monuments in his homeland, as well as to promote civilised political dialogue between Hungary and Serbia in the interest of preserving the rights of ethnic minorities, Kövér said. He noted Pásztor’s achievements “in the process of a historic reconciliation between the Serbian and Hungarian nations.”