Hungary: Hungary's president spoke to Daniel McLaughlin in Budapest about the challenges and opportunities facing his country after EU accession
Even high up in the stately Sandor Palace, watching snow fall steadily on the Danube, President Ferenc Madl is reminded of Ireland's growing imprint on Hungary.
The Gresham Hotel, a historic landmark on Budapest's waterfront, is now partly in Irish hands and stands opposite the president's palace as a reminder to him that many of the profits won by the fabled Celtic Tiger are being invested just below.
Mr Madl arrived in Dublin last night, determined to use his three-day visit not only to help boost the current €200 million of Irish investment in Hungary, but to glean tips from President McAleese, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, cabinet ministers and businessmen, on how to make Hungary's economy purr like Ireland's did in the early years of EU membership.
"We greatly appreciate the fact that over 10 to 15 years Ireland, especially through wise use of EU funds, has established a fabulous trajectory of development," Mr Madl told The Irish Times before he left Budapest. "I will be very interested to hear the views of the prime minister and president on what they see as the most important factors in this Irish miracle. We would very much like to create our own Hungarian miracle, of course."
President since 2000, Mr Madl oversaw Hungary's accession to NATO and the EU last spring. He has also seen Irish entrepreneurs leap at its diverse opportunities - from the Budapest property market to planning the country's biggest wind farm and redeveloping its second-largest airport.
Mr Madl (74), who was a prominent lawyer before taking up politics, credits the country's well-educated workforce with driving its transition from a centralised Soviet satellite to a stable member of the EU.
"It is a small economic miracle of its own," he says of Hungary's transformation. "With the demise of the socialist system, we had to aspire to producing quality products and services. Now 70 per cent of our exports go to the European market."
Like many of the EU's newest members, Hungary sees Ireland as something of a role model: the former Soviet bloc is strewn with small nations with troubled pasts which want to escape the shadow of a historically powerful neighbour and see the opportunities afforded by Brussels and its funds as a good way of doing this.
"Ireland has always been an example to us in the years following the democratic changes," Mr Madl noted, saying that he hoped to discuss this week how "smaller and medium-sized European Union member-states" can assert their interests better on the political stage.
"We are also highly appreciative of Ireland's support for Hungary's aspiration to joining the great alliances, the EU and NATO," he said, before adding with a wry smile: "Even though it took two referendums for you to pass the Nice Treaty."
As culture minister in Hungary's first post-communist government, Mr Madl has used his presidency to emphasise the ability of the arts to create links and lines of communication which can form the foundation of strong political and economic ties.
He will visit Cork on Wednesday to support its year as European Capital of Culture and recalled the visit to that city of a famous Hungarian whom Austria often claims as one of its sons. "I am proud that in Cork - a place that Franz Liszt visited earlier - contemporary Hungarian artists have been given the chance to perform to the Irish audience," Mr Madl said. He also reiterated the contribution made to European music and letters by Hungarians such as composer Bela Bartok and Nobel prizewinning author Imre Kertesz.
In Cork he will see a performance by the acclaimed ballet company of Gyor, a historic town close to Hungary's border with Austria which is famed for its Irish connection. The link was forged by the Rev Dr Walter Lynch, Bishop of Clonfert, who arrived in Gyor by a roundabout route in the mid-1650s after fleeing from Cromwell's forces as they pushed across Ireland.
The bishop brought with him an image of the Virgin Mary which, it is said, wept blood for several hours on March 17th, 1697. This image has been an object of veneration ever since and, Mr Madl says, it serves as a reminder of the faith which has helped both Ireland and Hungary to "survive the storms in the history of the centuries and helped us preserve our language, culture and traditions".
Having escaped 150 years of Ottoman rule only to fall under Austrian control and then siding with the losers of two world wars before succumbing to Soviet domination, Hungary's history is certainly torrid. But it was a rare triumph - Budapest's 1867 success in forcing Vienna to accept it as an equal partner in a dual monarchy - which shaped Arthur Griffith's 1904 treatise The Resurrection of Hungary. In it, he outlined the fundamental principles of Sinn Féin and advocated a shared monarch and separate governments for Britain and Ireland. During his visit this week Mr Madl will be able to see a memorial plaque to the man who served as president of the Dáil from January 1922 until his death in August of the same year.
While Hungary's borders and independence now appear secure, a general election due next year is already raising political hackles and leading some to question the stability of a country which opinion polls show to be almost evenly divided between the ruling Socialists and the centre-right opposition party, Fidesz. Media reports that secret files may soon be made public to expose leading politicians as former agents of the communist secret police have added to the trepidation.
Mr Madl dismisses talk of any serious danger to the investment climate, however, citing the commitment to Hungary of firms such as VW/Audi and General Electric as a more accurate indicator of the country's stability.
"In the run-up to the election we will see - to put it politely - strengthened political rhetoric. But democracy and the rule of law are so embedded in Hungary, changes of government have been so smooth and constitutional, that I don't believe the forthcoming elections will demonstrate anything other than our stable development. No one should have any worries or concerns about it resulting in uncertainty."
Mr Madl, who is accompanied by his wife Dalma, returns to Budapest on Wednesday.