The new Ambassador to Hungary, Jeroen Vergeylen, who arrived a few months ago, visited our collection, which contains many sources related to his country. Otto von Habsburg lived in Belgium from autumn 1929 to May 1940 and remained a regular visitor afterwards. The former Crown Prince was on good terms with many Belgian public figures and the royal family as well, while his brother Archduke Carl-Louis settled there; furthermore, one of his nephews became the brother-in-law of the current monarch.
The Ambassador was pleased to learn that our namesake has many links with Belgium, which provides an opportunity to organise events for the bilateral relations between our countries. For six months from January 2024, Belgium will hold the presidency of the Council of the European Union, to be followed by Hungary. We plan to have our now-traditional commemoration of the death of Otto von Habsburg on Sunday, 30 June 2024. This would be an opportunity to hand over the presidency or at least to thematise the Belgian-Hungarian relationship in the EU’s political system. The contemporary diplomatic event would be given a fitting historical context by the juxtaposition of the tomb of the widow of Crown Prince Rudolf, Princess Stefania of Belgium, born 160 years ago next year, and the heart urn of Otto von Habsburg in the basilica of the Archabbey.
The idea of an event in Leuven was also raised since our namesake studied and defended his doctoral thesis at the Catholic University of Leuven (as did our guest). Ambassador Jeroen Vergeylen assured us that he will assist our Foundation in organising the planned programmes with the participation of Belgian guests.
