Orbán addressed a letter to Hungarians in advance of the March 15 commemoration of the 1848-49 revolution

Budapest, March 14 (MTI) – Prime Minister Viktor Orbán addressed a letter to Hungarians in advance of the March 15 commemoration of the 1848-49 revolution in which he declared that freedom and independence are “not clothes tailored for us from the outside but are something that emerge from within and make their way to the exterior, like the skin of an apple and the house of a snail”.

The press chief of the prime minister’s office said in a statement on Monday that Orban had said that on March 15 “a new nation was born that, cornered and isolated, without a powerful army, a proper industrial background or an alliance with great powers, turned the country’s fate around.”

Orban emphasised that the Hungarians of 1848 “firmly and courageously” stood up for the demands of the nation: in place of imperial despotism, they wished for equality before the law; in place of financial dependence they demanded a national bank and instead of oppression they demanded freedom.”

“In the intervening 168 years this idea has only deepened,” Orban wrote. “We wish to adjust our laws and our everyday lives to what freedom here means to us within the wreath laid by the Carpathian Basin.”

The prime minister said, “Today, too, we insist on every opportunity to ensure that no one disputes our national symbols, no one questions our constitutional rights, no one takes away from us our schools and no one recruits our sons and sends them to foreign wars.”

“Long live Hungarian freedom, long live the homeland,” Orban added.

Photo: MTI

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