Debrecen4U November 21, 2025

Soon it will be revealed whether Debrecen will become Hungary’s Youth Capital

Soon it will be decided whether the application, jointly submitted with Székelyudvarhely, entitled “The Lighting Lamp of Hungary and Transylvania”, will be successful. Debrecen and Székelyudvarhely are jointly applying for the title of Youth Capital of Hungary 2026 and have reached the semi-finals of the television competition, DEMKI announced on its social media page on Thursday.

According to the draw, the Debrecen team will play against the Salgótarján–Fülek and Kisvárda–Szatmárnémeti pairs on December 5 for a place in the final.

The two winning settlements will not only win the prestigious title but will also receive a grant of HUF 100 million each to implement youth programs.

The final will be held on December 11, where the three winners of the semi-finals will advance, as well as an additional pair, who will be selected by the audience.

As Deputy Mayor István Puskás states on the DEMKI website, “Debrecen has been a student city since the foundation of the Reformed College in 1538; for almost half a millennium; where a student community from the entire Carpathian Basin, and in recent decades from almost a hundred countries of the world, has lived here—not only the more than thirty thousand university students, but also the many thousands of students studying in sixty-seven primary and secondary schools, ensuring that Debrecen is a youthfully lively, bustling place.

And let’s not forget the increasingly numerous group of young adults working and starting families in Debrecen, thanks to the great retaining and attractive, constantly expanding job opportunities!

Debrecen is today one of the most dynamically developing cities not only in our country but also in the entire Central European region, and therefore one of the most youthful cities, where, thanks to a conscious development strategy that has been in place for more than a quarter of a century, various aspects of the life of a successful community develop together. We learned this from our ancestors, because the significant development periods of the city have always brought not only quantitative but also qualitative growth in the economy, education, quality of life, and culture.

The ingredients of the recipe for success are the determination and diligence of the locals, as well as complex, strategic thinking and action, in which strengthening the integrity, identity, and resilience and retaining the power of the city with sustainable means are key issues– as the crisis situations of recent years have confirmed.

We know from our own experience that all this—complex strategic thinking and a series of development projects based on it—can only be successful and sustainable if it is based on the real needs of the community and is implemented with the active, acting cooperation of the community. That is why we consider the most important task in the field of community building to be the most basic skill, the building of a culture of cooperation.

The format and methodology of the development of cooperative cultural communities in Debrecen, which has been developed in recent years, has now become a model of good practice.”

Source and photo credit:dehir.hu