Hungary

Queen Beatrix arrived in Hungary

Budapest / Hungary (RNC Agency) 21.05.1996

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands arrived in Hungary on Tuesday for a three-day state visit, her second to a former communist country in central Europe.The queen, who went to the Czech Republic in 1994, was accompanied by her husband, Prince Claus, and a delegation including Foreign Minister Hans van Mierlo. Queen Beatrix is to hold talks with President Arpad Goncz, who invited her to Hungary when he visited the Netherlands in 1993, and will also meet Prime Minister Gyula Horn. On Thursday she will talk to Roma leaders. The 1.000,000-strong Roma communityis ten percent of Hungarys population but makes up an estimated 30 percent of its unemployed. The total unemployment rate is more than13 percent of the workforce. Foreign ministry spokesman Gabor Szentivanyi told that Hungary had no problem with the queens wish to meet minorityepresentatives. Holland is a strong supporter of minority rights wherever they are on the agenda so it is quite natural that she should take an interesthere, he said. Queen Beatrix will also meet the governments officer in charge of minority affairs, Csaba Tabajdi, who has described the Roma as the principal losers in Hungarys transformation into a market economy. This is Queen Beatrixs second visit to Hungary. Ten years ago, in a rare trip for a monarch, she came to communist Hungary ona working visit as part of a cultural exchange programme between Hungary and the Netherlands.


   
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