Hungarian politicians pay tribute to 1956 martyr Imre Nagy

Budapest, June 16 (MTI) – After 57 years, the example set by Hungary’s martyred prime minister Imre Nagy “still demands our respect”, parliament’s deputy speaker Gergely Gulyas, of the ruling Fidesz, said on Tuesday.

The hanging and dishonourable burial of Nagy and other martyrs, as well as the mass revenge that followed Hungary’s failed 1956 uprising against Soviet rule, made it clear that the practice of power pursued by communists was incompatible with European civilisation and all the values that made Hungary belong to a Christian state and the western world for a thousand years, he said.

The memorial service held in central Budapest’s Martyrs’ Square was also attended by Chief of General Staff Tibor Benko and representatives of several state and civil organisations.

Imre Lezsak, another deputy speaker, told a memorial event in parliament on Tuesday that Hungarians always joined forces in great moments of history, such as in 1956 and in 1989.

Opposition Egyutt party leader Viktor Szigetvari told the event Martyrs’ Square that Nagy chose the West in 1956 because he recognised that Hungary had no future in the East.