At the National Culture Gala held on Tuesday evening in Botosani, at the Ipotesti Memorial – National Center for Mihai Eminescu Studies, Foreign Affairs Minister Emil Hurezeanu was awarded the National Prize for promoting Mihai Eminescu’s literary work and Romanian culture. The event marked the 175th anniversary of the national poet’s birth.

„I am extremely pleased and grateful to you for you having staged today, literally and figuratively, such an encounter between what we are and what we were and, in any case, what we must not give up on being,” Hurezeanu said at the award ceremony.

At the same gala, Italian translator Bruno Mazzoni was presented with the National Prize for Translation from Romanian literature and the international promotion of Romanian studies, and Academician Mircea Martin received the National Prize for Cultural Excellence.

AGERPRES