There is a joint Hungarian-Polish proverb that roughly translates as "Poles and Hungarians, two good friends who fight and drink wine together" and this idea of friendship going back a millenium between these two peoples of Eastern Central Europe has once again become popular due to the support of both the Hungarian and Polish regimes. Despite the similarities between the two countries that this proverb alludes to, there are also significant differences. According to the Transparency International Corruption Index, Poland is significantly less corrupt than Hungary (Poland is the third least corrupt country among the former Socialist countries and Hungary is the second most corrupt country). Poland has carried out welfare reform that favoured those on low incomes which Hungary failed to do so. Currently, Poland, despite the policies of its national government, is making much better use of EU money. But that's not what I want to write about ...
Recently I held a TedXEger and started to study the history of the Walloons in the Eastern-Central European region (the Wallons originated from what is now southern French speaking Belgium) and I found some rather startling links.
Poles and Hungarians are fully aware of this historical "bromance" between the two peoples but few are aware of the fact that it was more of a triangular relationship. The third party provided both the young Hungarian and Polish states with help and assistance and Walloon subjects settled in both countries in significant numbers bringing advanced wine production to Hungary and brewing to Silesia in Poland.
It became clear to me that both the Árpáds (the contemporary rulers of Hungary in the 11th century) and the Piasts (the Polish rulers) were personally indebted to the Duke-Bishops of Liege. Bishop St. Lambert of Maastricht was the patron saint of Liege, and the use of his name expressed their allegiance to the Duke-Bishop of Liege. Polish King Mieszko II was given the name Lambert as his 'Christian name' (he ruled at the same time with Stephen I and Andrew I), and clearly with good reason.
A thousand years ago, the Duchy of Liege represented a European Christian value system that was fully accepted by the Hungarian and Polish rulers. They realized that acceptance of these values was the only way to quarantee the security and prosperity of their countries.
A thousand years later Hungary and Poland are playing with fire. What would St. Stephen say to this?
Perhaps there is a modern parallel here and the rulers of both Hungary and Poland had a better sense of where they should position their countries in a European context a thousand years ago.
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