Is there a Central European identity

The chief editor of the Hungarian edition of Le Monde diplomatique, Gábor Papp, complains in the German edition of the monthly magazine that Central European identity draws too much on the past: "At precisely a time when ethnic origin and nationality are becoming less important than ever before in western Europe, Central European sensitivity to these issues has intensified even further, either because the country in question has been mutilated or because it has at long last become a state in its own right. ... From all this it follows that the myths of ethnocentrism in the era of freedom of speech and thought, which at long last has arrived in Central Europe, are more inviolable than ever before. As for the troubled nation and the cornerstones of ethnocentrism, it is the obligation of political actors in the region to speak with one voice. ... [For that reason] the conclusion reached under completely different circumstances by that brilliant writer of the American South William Faulkner that 'The past is not dead. In fact it's not even past' ... has a universal character."

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