Former Hungarian president Árpád Göncz laid to rest – Photos

Thousands of mourners gathered in Budapest’s Óbudai cemetery on Friday afternoon to attend the funeral of Árpád Göncz, Hungary’s first democratically elected president.

The ex-president, who held office for two consecutive terms from 1990 to 2000, died on October 6 at the age of 93.

Imre Mecs, a close friend and former Free Democrat, then Socialist lawmaker, called Göncz the best Hungarian president of all times.

Mecs said in his eulogy that Göncz had been elected as president of the newly established Republic of Hungary as a result of “a very wise and well-designed pact”.

“You became the best head of state of all times, someone loved by the people, who could also be rather strong-minded, when need be,” said Mecs, who got a life sentence together with Goncz after the ill-fated 1956 revolution.

He said that Göncz as president had rescued Hungarian society and Hungary’s rule of law from the mistakes that could not be avoided during the transition to democracy in 1989-90.

Mecs characterised Goncz as “an advocate of the poor, the oppressed and those deprived of their rights”.

Marton Benedek, the late president’s eldest grandson, said that Göncz had worked throughout his life for Hungary’s becoming a western-type liberal democracy based on freedom, human rights and social justice. “Our task is to fulfil his dream and foster his intellectual heritage,” he said.

Asztrik Várszegi, Archabbot of Pannonhalma, characterised Goncz as a man who loved the people, the Hungarian nation and humankind, a man “filled with a strong desire for freedom”.

Göncz was a man of faith who “interpreted the Word of God radically”, the archabbot said.

The funeral was attended by several Hungarian and foreign state leaders, politicians and public personalities, including President János Áder and his predecessors László Sólyom and Pál Schmitt, as well as Austrian Federal President Heinz Fischer.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his wife stood far from the state leaders, in the last rows of the mourning crowd.

Ex-premiers Péter Medgyessy and Péter Boross and former House Speaker Katalin Szili were also in attendance.

Present were church dignitaries, including Cardinal Peter Erdo, and members of the government, including Interior Minister Sandor Pinter.

Party leaders in attendance included József Tóbiás of the Socialists and Gábor Fodor of the Liberal Party.

LMP co-leader Bernadett Szél and Együtt leader Viktor Szigetvári announced their presence in a statement before the funeral.

Göncz was laid to rest near the graves of three other veterans of the 1956 revolution: István Bibó, György Litván and Miklós Vásárhelyi.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters