Ambassador Foley Encourages Competitiveness and Promotes Tolerance in Western Hungary

Ambassador Foley at Balf with Sopron Mayor Tamás Fodor (center) (full size photo)

As part of the U.S. Embassy Budapest outreach program, on June 17, 2008, Ambassador Foley visited the cities of Sopron, Balf and Kapuvár.  In Sopron, the Ambassador met with the leaders of the Western Hungarian University and talked to students about study opportunities in the U.S.

She was then received by the Mayor of Sopron at the city hall where they exchanged ideas on raising the economic competitiveness of the city and of Hungary as a whole. 

The Ambassador took part in a lunch hosted by the mayor, then proceeded to Balf, where she visited the site of a National Memorial to be erected in commemoration of the Hungarian Jews killed in the Balf forced labor camps at the end of World War II. 

The Ambassador talked to a local audience at the Balf Cultural and Documentary Center on the importance of tolerance and shared her thoughts from visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland earlier this year. 

After an interview with the regional daily paper Kisalföld, the Ambassador departed for Kapuvár, where she met with the mayor.  Finally, the Ambassador saw a folk dance performance at a local arts primary school and joined in the dance.  (full size photo - Ambassador Foley's remarks at Balf)