Programme Guide: 23 October celebrations in Hungary

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will give a speech on 23 October, Hungary’s national holiday, in the Millenáris Park in Budapest, commemorating the 68th anniversary of the 1956 revolution and freedom fight against communist rule, the Government Information Centre (KTK) said on Wednesday.

Political director of Orbán: we would NOT have defended Hungary in case of Russian invasion

Official celebrations will start on 22 October, with dignitaries laying wreaths at the memorial at the Budapest Technical and Economics University at 2pm, it said in a statement. Afterwards, Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, will give a speech at 3pm. At 4pm, a torch-lit march of 2,500 students will take place to Bem Square, where Speaker of Parliament László Kövér will give a speech, it said.

Interestingly, Péter Magyar, PM Orbán’s biggest political adversary, will also celebrate 23 October in Bem Square. Afterwards, he and his supporters march to Széna Square, a symbolic place of the 1956 revolution and freedom fight where Hungarian freedom fighters resisted the Soviet invasion for long. Weeks before, an interview with Balázs Orbán, the prime minister’s political director, surfaced and caused a public outcry.

Photo: FB/Balázs Orbán

Orbán said the Hungarian government would not advised President Zelensky to fight against the Russian invasion because in 1956. Despite Hungarian calls, the Western powers did not help the Hungarian freedom fight then because such a move would have risked the outbreak of WWIII. PM Orbán called his political director’s words an error, but Orbán’s thoughts seemingly did not have consequences concerning his career and high power status in the Orbán regime. We covered the scandal in THIS article.

Multiple programmes on 22 and 23 October

On 23 October, the national flag will be hoisted at Kossuth Square in front of Parliament at 9am. President Tamás Sulyok will give a speech at a gala at the Palace of Arts (Müpa) at 6pm.

The Müpa and the Hungarian National Theatre. Photo: Wikimedia Commons by Tamás Thaler

Parliament and the House of Terror Museum will be open to the public to visit free of charge all day. Commemorations will be held at the Heroes’ Wall at the House of Terror museum and at Plot 301 of the New Public Cemetery.

Read also:

• Is resistance against Russia futile in case of an invasion? – Here is the answer of PM Orbán
• Jaw-dropping discovery: North Korean students fought for Hungary against the Soviets in Budapest