Prekmurje Reunification Day celebrated

Ljubljana/Murska Sobota – Slovenia celebrates Prekmurje Reunification Day on Tuesday, a national holiday marking the day when the country’s eastern-most region Prekmurje was united with the rest of the nation after more than a millennium in 1919. Presidential Palace will open to the public and the president address the visitors after the main ceremony was held last evening.

Prekmurje become part of the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in line with a decision of the post-WWI peace conference.

The royal military then moved into the region on 12 August and five days later, on 17 August 1919, the civil authorities took over as a rally brought together more than 20,000 people in the town of Beltinci to support the reunification.

As the keynote speaker, President Pahor stressed last evening in Beltinci that Slovenia’s celebration of its reunification with Prekmurje region is a celebration of national identity that is not targeted against any other nation.

Rather than being targeted against any other nation it is “an opportunity to reflect on the mutuality of national and common European identity in the framework of the shared European homeland”, he said.

He also announced that in early September he and Hungarian President Janos Ader will host a meeting of the Slovenian ethnic minority in Hungary and the Hungarian ethnic minority in Slovenia.

Prekmurje Reunification Day has been celebrated since 2006, although not as a work-free day. A national ceremony is organised every five years, whereas regional municipalities organise the main celebration in between.

The post Prekmurje Reunification Day celebrated appeared first on Slovenia Times.

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