But history had other plans for Bethlen, who was born after World War II in Transylvania, an area cut off from Hungary as part of the Treaties of Triannon. Transylvania, an area that Bethlen’s family ruled centuries earlier, suddenly belonged to Romania.

Fleeing the communist regime
After their family estate was pillaged, they fled the communist regime in Romania, which had sentenced Bethlen’s father, László Count Bethlen, a well-known agricultural lawyer, to death. As a result, the younger Bethlen grew up in Hungary in an era of a raging proletarian dictatorship, which also created a system of so-called "class categories," under which Bethlen, of noble class, was considered among the lowest social order. Consequently, he was only allowed to work in the most physically demanding blue-collar jobs.

Count István Bethlen, hailing from Transylvania, heads Hungary’s Pan-European Union

Not only were aristocrats and members of the upper classes stigmatized from an early age, but the children of well-to-do farmers, small shopkeepers and merchants. A significant part of Hungarian society fell into the "other" category, and as a result the privilege of higher education was only granted to children from families with a Marxist or communist movement background.

In these surroundings, it is understandable that Bethlen, restricted to blue-collar work, had hardly heard the title "Count" that was bestowed on him by lineage and descent. Having had no possibility to enroll in higher education, he fled west in 1965 during the Kádár regime.

This was still the era of political sentences against clergymen, former scouts leaders and Jewish officials and doctors accused of Zionism.

Supporting himself, Bethlen studied in Innsbruck, Munich, Vienna and Philadelphia. For a long time he was occupied by existential problems, but later turned to studying social issues. Among these included looking into the process of distorting a sensible intellectual’s psyche so much that he becomes an assistant or even defacto supporter of dictatorships. He wrote his thesis on the analogies between the philosophy of Marx and J.P. Sartre.

Kalergi and "Pan-Europe"
Having received degrees in law, philosophy and economy, Bethlen also acquainted himself with the "Pan-European movement." The mentality of the movement, closely linked to Count Coudenhove-Kalergi, the Japanese-Moravian-Dutch and Greek cosmopolitan aristocrat, would become an important influence in his future. Kalergi published a book entitled "Pan-Europe" in 1923. It was he who pointed out the futility of World War I, and even predicted World War II. Kalergi considered these wars as civil wars in Europe. In his view, further wars in Europe could only be averted by the creation of European unity. Such prominent figures of the 1920s joined the movement, such as Aristide Briand, Gustav Stresemann, Eduard Herriott, Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann. But the two totalitarian ideologies, Fascism and Communism, wiped out the Pan-European ideal.

Otto von Habsburg

After the Yalta Treaty in 1945, which divided Europe in two, the movement was revived only in the western part. It was transformed into an organization of highly trained intellectuals coming from different caucuses of the European Parliament (EP), including numerous conservative, and a few liberal representatives. Such old Pan-European believers, Christian democratic politicians such as German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, French statesman Robert Schumann and Italian Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi took the first steps toward creating a unified Europe by declaring a reconciliation between France and Germany. Owing much to the members of the Pan-European movement, long-time tension between the two countries became history, and members of the Pan-European movement began to prepare the process of unifying Europe. The result of this effort is the European Union.

At the age of 20, Count Bethlen met Otto von Habsburg, who was vice president of the movement in 1958, and finally president after Count Kalergi died. Bethlen’s participation in the Pan-European movement began with this encounter.

" Dr. Habsburg gave a lecture at the university in Innsbruck. We looked at him with respect but also with great skepticism. We thought he represented a world that had sunk into oblivion and had no reality by the end of the 50s. Fortunately, we were mistaken and by the end of the lecture nearly 600 of us thought that we should get acquainted with the activities of this movement," Count Bethlen says. He still believes that the remedy for mistreatment of Hungary can only be a united Europe, similarly to the French-German example. As a result of Hungary’s unfavorable geographical position, the country has been exposed to foreign powers. After losing two-thirds of its territory, 5 million of Hungary’s population became citizens of neighboring countries. In this geo-political situation, pushing national interests to the forefront of the EU could provide an outlet for lobbying for these individuals.

Otto von Habsburg’s speech
The Pan-European Union always preceded the notion of European unity, just as it did during the Cold War, when members of the organization intended to destroy the Yalta walls and envisaged a Pan-European world. Referring to Otto von Habsburg’s speech about a unified Europe in 1988, Willy Brandt, the social-democratic German chancellor said, "Dr. Habsburg knowingly speaks unrealistically, as the reunification of Germany obviously can’t take place in the 20th century. Even in the third millennium the main ideology will remain Communism." Fortunately Brandt, who made exceptional concessions to the former communist countries, was mistaken.

Konrad Adenauer, Alcide De Gasperi and Robert Schumann

The creation of a democratically elected European Parliament is an important achievement of the Pan-European Union, which works as the biggest "informal caucus and "think-tank" for the EP," embracing different parties. At the time of the Cold War another achievement of the organization was that the European Parliament accepted a recommendation about reserving seats in the European Parliament for the Eastern bloc countries, where free elections were not allowed. Notwithstanding, the Pan-European Union rejects the idea of centralism and uniformity, which is endorsed by left wing and socialist parties in Western Europe. It believes in federalism and supports the idea of autonomy for ethnic minorities. Germany and Austria are good examples for federalism, and "an autonomy with which the Catalans are satisfied and the Basques are not, we, Hungarians would be happy to see in Transylvania, in Slovakia, in Serbia and even in Austria," Bethlen says. So Pan-European believers fight for national states to disappear and also against uniformity and centralization.

"By 2004, the European Union in a way has moved away from the spirit of the mainly Christian democratic founders. The leaders of the EU today have a pragmatic way of thinking and consider the ideal of European unity only as an economic alliance," says Count Bethlen. "However, economy for the founding fathers was just a means to maintain the real values inherent in European traditions and culture. One of the most important elements of European culture is Christianity, along with the ancient Greek-Roman heritage. Our civilization is based on Judeo-Christian morality. Today political forces, which did almost nothing for European unity, want to omit these values from the European constitution. Since the French Revolution secularization has caused immense harm to ethics. ‘Fraternity’ of moral relativism and atheism showed itself in an extreme form as Fascism and Communism. I can’t resist commenting on some recent religious slurs, paradoxically, made by ex-communist politicians who whish to get in the European Parliament, on the Hungarian political scene. Therefore, the most important task of the Pan-European Union is to guard the ideals of the founding fathers," he says.