A commemoration was held in Budapest to pay tribute to the victims of a fusillade that took place near Parliament on October 25, 1956, on Tuesday.
László Géza Sömjéni, head of the organiser Freedom Fighters Foundation, said October 23, the outbreak of the anti-Soviet revolt, was an “iconic day” in Hungarian history.
Sömjéni also said that “Hungary is under appalling attacks even now, therefore we must fight for our survival in every hour and every minute”.
The commemoration was attended by House Speaker Laszlo Kover and former Prime Minister Péter Boross.
Hungarians living anywhere in the world are linked by the courage and patriotism of the heroes of 1956 and on October 23, “we also celebrate this belonging together”, the justice minister said on Sunday on the occasion of the 66th anniversary of the 1956 revolution and freedom fight.
Judit Varga told a commemorative event of ethnic Hungarians at the Saint Stephen’s Roman Catholic Magyar Church in Passaic, New Jersey, on Sunday local time, that strong communities remain strong supporters of the nation also in “the storms of our times”. She said the Saint Stephen’s Roman Catholic Magyar parish in Passaic took in several hundred Hungarians after the 1956 revolution.
Varga, Hungarian ambassador in Washington Szabolcs Takács and Consul General in New York István Pásztor laid a wreath at the 1956 freedom fighters’ memorial in Passaic.
She also addressed an event at the Consulate General in New York ahead of the holiday where she said efforts must be made to preserve the spirit of 1956 in everyday life.
The largest group of Hungarian refugees including more than 35,000 people settled in the US after the 1956 revolution.
The dedication of Hungarians to freedom and sovereignty is not newfangled, the group leader of the junior ruling Christian Democrats said on Sunday, marking the 66th anniversary of the anti-Soviet revolution. “Fighting for this has been part of our history, and this was the case in October 1956, too,” István Simicskó said in a statement.
“We are continuing that fight today,” Simicskó said, adding that “expectations and interventions that conflict with Hungarian interests … always from a different direction”.
Hungarians had to band together in the middle of the 20th century against Soviet tanks and Hungarian communist, whereas “today sanctions enforced upon us by Brussels are threatening Hungarian families and the future of Hungarians.”
“We cannot allow others to tell us what the future of Hungary should be this time round either,” he said. “We must look with respect to the heroes of 1956 who acted … with courage and their love for freedom,” he added.
Opposition leaders on Sunday addressed gatherings in Budapest on the occasion of the 66th anniversary of the outbreak of the 1956 revolution and freedom fight.
“Everyone belongs to the nation,” Ágnes Kunhalmi, co-leader of the opposition Socialist Party, said at the statue of Imre Nagy. “The streetfighters of the 1956 uprising, martyred prime minister Imre Nagy, as well as those who are now fighting for a better education, have been key to the nation’s future,” she said.
Kunhalmi insisted that in recent years Fidesz had tried to deny the role of Imre Nagy in the events, focusing solely on the young streetfighter heroes of the uprising. But the martyred prime minister “played just as an important role in 1956 as those who fought in the streets against an authoritarian regime”, and was a victim of it, she added.
Kunhalmi said the young people demonstrating today for a better education, a better country, and a shared national cause “are also victims of this authoritarian regime”, which Fidesz, she insisted, had built over the past 12 years.
Budapest, 23 October 2022. Ágnes Kunhalmi and Imre Komjáthi, co-chairs of the MSZP, wreath the party’s statue of Imre Nagy at the commemoration of the 66th anniversary of the 1956 Revolution and War of Independence in Budapest, 23 October 2022. MTI/Márton Mónus
Socialist co-leader Imre Komjáthi said that in October 1956 the Hungarian people had rejected dictatorship and embraced democracy. “Our task today is to lead Hungary back to the path of democracy,” he said.
Bence Tordai, co-leader of the opposition Párbeszéd party, said the hopes and objectives of 1956 had been fulfilled when Hungary became a free and sovereign country thirty years later.
Tordai was speaking at his party’s commemoration of the 1956 uprising at the monument of Péter Mansfeld, the youngest victim of the reprisals, in Budapest’s 1st district. As the heroes of 1956 were the young streetfighters, Tordai said, “our hope is again invested in the young people who are out in the streets,” where they “must face an authoritarian regime … and protect their lives, their future, and the life and fate of their teachers.”
Recalling Péter Mansfeld and the other young heroes of 1956, Tordai said nobody should give up hope, and if they had lost hope, they should think of those who never gave up, since later on history confirmed the validity of their ideas and aspirations.
Péter Ungár, co-leader of the LMP party talked about the shared fate of the peoples of the region at his party’s commemoration in Budapest. Ungár said the message of 1956 was that those living in the region “must stand up for each other if they are to stand up for themselves”.
“When speaking of 1956, it’s often said that all we received from the West were nice words but no help, and we were left on our own,” he said. Yet other central European peoples stood up for Hungary, he added, even at a great sacrifice.
What was special about the events of 1956 is that they were at the same time a revolution against communist dictatorship and a freedom fight to regain Hungary’s sovereignty from the occupying Soviet army, Ungár said.
In connection with the war in Ukraine, Ungár said Hungary could not accept any solution to the conflict that would lead to Ukraine becoming a puppet state, because Hungary would then find itself dangerously close to the Russian empire.
Ferenc Gelencsér, leader of the opposition Momentum Movement, said the first step of the freedom fight was to say that “we do not want to live a lie any longer”. Addressing his party’s commemoration, Gelencsér said people from various backgrounds had come together on 23 October to reject the lies of communism, and this had shaken the dictatorship to the core.
Gelencsér said the dictatorship of the era accused the revolutionaries of being foreign agents, even though they were only fighting for values that “are sadly still missing today: free education, free university, free press, free elections.”
Ferenc Gyurcsány, head of the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK), accused the government of being unworthy of the legacy of 1956.
At his party’s commemoration, he said a government that failed to acknowledge the right of the Ukrainian people to self-determination and freedom was unworthy of the legacy of 1956. “Today the Hungarian government fights for sovereignty where there is in fact sovereignty, and falsely talks about freedom where there is autocracy,” Gyurcsány said.
We are capable of protecting Hungary’s interests both at home and abroad, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in Zalaegerszeg, in western Hungary, on Sunday.
Addressing the inauguration of a new visitors’ centre presenting the life of the late Cardinal József Mindszenty, Orbán said that in 1956 “we had learnt that joining our forces was the only way to come through hard times”. “Therefore, we should not worry about those who are shooting at Hungary from the shadows or from the heights of Brussels, they will end up where their predecessors did,” he said.
The prime minister stressed that “since Hungary had a conservative government, the country has emerged stronger from every crisis than it was before entering it”.
“We are also prepared now, we will preserve the stability of the country, everyone will have a job and families will not be left on their own,” Orbán said, adding that the government has the strength and the experience to achieve those goals.
Hungary stood a real chance of winning independence in 1956 and “only the Hungarians can show the world the truth of the Hungarians”, the prime minister said in Zalaegerszeg, in western Hungary, marking the 66th anniversary of the outbreak of the anti-Soviet revolution on Sunday.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony of a new visitors’ centre presenting the life of the late Cardinal József Mindszenty, Viktor Orbán said that although the heroes of the revolution had been very different, their inspiration had been the same: a love for a free Hungary.
In 1956, all reasonable conditions were in place for Hungary for a peaceful transition, he said.
“In the first days the plan worked, hundreds of thousands of Hungarians participated in the revolution, the Russians became confused, and, had the West not betrayed them, Hungarians could have gained success for the second time after 1945,” Orbán said.
“The truth of the Hungarians can only be shown to the world by the Hungarians, and only the Hungarians can defend their own truth against threats,” Orbán said.
‘Today we do not have to die for our country, we can live for it’
We want to be worthy of the community-building legacy of Cardinal József Mindszenty and the death-defying courage of the heroes of 1956, and want to take the opportunity that today we do not have to die for our country but we can live for it, Orbán said.
Addressing the inauguration of a new visitors’ centre presenting the life of the late Cardinal József Mindszenty, Orbán said the Hungarians knew that they needed spiritual support even amidst the revolution, that is why they had freed Mindszenty from the prison of the communists.
He added that Cardinal Mindszenty had been the first to use the words “freedom fight” to describe the events, rather than calling it an uprising. “Mindszenty was convinced that we are not the enemies of anyone, we all want to live in friendship with all peoples and countries,” Orbán said.
Orbán said “our real tragedy” is that the communists returned with the help of the Soviets, and instead of achieving peace, they continued where they had left it off on 23 October. “Proletarian dictatorship, party state, political prisons and executions,” he said.
Glory to the victims, respect to the resistance, Orbán said.
‘The left does not understand that the country is not identical with Budapest’
1956 was a revolution not of a city, but of an entire country, of the whole nation, the prime minister said. Addressing the inauguration ceremony of a new visitors’ centre presenting the life of the late Cardinal József Mindszenty, Viktor Orbán said that “in the opinion of the left, which looks down on us people living in the countryside, it is not correct to celebrate in Zalaegerszeg”. “They do not understand that Budapest is not identical with the country,” he said.
Orbán praised Hungary’s leading religious personalities, saying that they represent “a point of reference not only in the matters of faith”. “The great Hungarian Catholic leaders were not only leading in preaching the Gospel, but also served Mary’s country, Hungary with their guidance and deeds throughout their lives and in their deaths.”
“The greatest Hungarian church leaders always led the Hungarian people as prophets and carried out the task of leading the country spiritually alongside the political leaders, or, if needed, and it was often needed, instead of the political leaders,” Orbán said, adding that József Mindszenty was such a religious leader.
Between 21 and 23 October, the Gloria Victis 1956 Commemoration takes place in Budapest with the participation of more than 2,000 high school and university students, organised by the Rákóczi Association (Rákóczi Szövetség).
The three-day event
Source: Facebook/Nacsa Lőrinc
The main feature of the three-day event, which is part of the national celebrations, was the commemoration ceremony in the University of Art and Design’s lobby on Saturday 22 October at 3:00 PM. Gergely Gulyás, Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office, and Friderika Németh, a medical student from Bratislava, representing the university organisations, gave speeches.
The torchlight march started from the University of Technology at 4:00 PM along the historic route to Bem Square. There, a commemoration, wreath-laying ceremony and concert awaited the commemorators from 5:00 PM. Here, speeches were delivered by János Árpád Potápi, State Secretary for National Policy and Kristóf Fazekas, a university student from Budapest, Rákóczi Szövetség reported.
The programme of the three-day event between 21 and 23 October is multi-faceted. It includes the Money Museum (Pénzmúzeum), the Dreamer of Dreams exhibition (Álmok Álmodói kiállítás), the 301 plot (301-es parcella), a popular and classical music concert, and a film screening in collaboration with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
Gloria Victis 1956
Source: Facebook/Nacsa Lőrinc
Thanks to the late József Halzl, the Gloria Victis 1956 Commemoration has become the largest and most visible event of the Rákóczi Association in the last three decades. More than 2000 high school and university students from home and abroad, representing the youth organisations of the Federation, will attend the event. In addition to the Hungarian students, 50 Ukrainian high school students are also coming with the help of the Transcarpathian County Council and the county’s military administration.
As is tradition, at 9 AM, the programmes began with the flag-raising ceremony on Kossuth Lajos Square in front of the Parliament. At 9:09 AM, the national anthem was played and the flag was raised. Commemorations are also being held across the country and beyond the borders to mark the 66th anniversary of the 1956 Revolution and Freedom Fight.
At 10.30 AM, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will give a speech at the inauguration ceremony of the Mindszentyneum building in Zalaegerszeg. The Holy Crown will also be on display at the Parliament from 10 AM to 4 PM this year, Magyar Hírlap writes.
Budapest, 23 October 2022. The national flag is hoisted with military salute in the presence of President of the Republic Katalin Novák on the 66th anniversary of the 1956 Revolution and Freedom Fight in front of the Parliament on Kossuth Lajos Square, Budapest, 23 October 2022. Source: MTI/Noémi Bruzák
The House of Terror Museum will be open free of charge, where anyone can light a candle at the Wall of Heroes. There will be an all-day, protocol-free commemoration in the New Public Cemetery (Új köztemető) at Plot 301.
Budapest, 23 October 2022. The national flag is hoisted with military salute in the presence of President of the Republic Katalin Novák on the 66th anniversary of the 1956 Revolution and Freedom Fight in front of the Parliament on Kossuth Lajos Square, Budapest, 23 October 2022. Source: MTI/Noémi Bruzák
Due to the events, there will be closures and traffic restrictions on several busy roads in the capital, especially in the city centre. You can read our article about it HERE.
The National Assembly declared 23 October an official national holiday in 1991, which was confirmed by the Fundamental Law of Hungary.
Despite their trials and tribulations in the first half of the 20th century, Hungarians have never given up freedom, the prime minister’s chief of staff said in Budapest on Saturday, on the eve of the anniversary of the 1956 revolution.
The heroes of 1956 wanted a free homeland not only for themselves but also for the generations to come, Gergely Gulyás said at a commemoration at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Patriotism dictates different tasks in every era, the minister said. In 1956, patriots demonstrated love of their homeland by taking up arms, fighting against dictatorship and sacrificing their lives, he said.
“Today, in turn, we are living in less difficult but no less fateful times, in which we no longer need Molotov cocktails to assert our interests. It would be enough if Hungarian public players loved their country more than the extent to which they hate the freely elected government,” he said, bitterly.
Addressing Hungarian and Ukrainian young people from Transcarpathia attending the commemoration, Gulyás said the way Ukraine had treated ethnic Hungarians in recent years would give no reason for Hungary to express solidarity with Ukraine but Hungary has every reason to help a country which is heroically defending its freedom and sovereignty.
“The nation of 1956 can only say that those who are fighting for their freedom and national independence are friends and proteges of Hungary,” he said.
Budapest’s traffic will fundamentally change this weekend because of the commemorations and celebrations organised for the outbreak of the 1956 anti-Soviet Hungarian revolution. The events take place in multiple venues in Budapest. Here is what you should know and how you should plan the next two days regarding traffic.
On Saturday afternoon, there will be a torchlight procession starting from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and finishing at József Bem Square. The event will commemorate the 22 October 1956 procession of the university youth against the terror of the Hungarian Communist state and in solidarity with the Polish demonstrators struggling for the same goals during the “Polish October”. On Sunday morning, there will be an official celebration at Kossuth Square. In the afternoon, there will be a demonstration between the Kálvin Square and the Műegyetem Wharf.
The Saturday procession will follow the route of the Műegyetem-Műegyetem rakpart-Szent Gellért tér-Szent Gellért rakpart-Döbrentei tér-Várkert rakpart-Ybl Miklós tér-Lánchíd utca-Clark Ádám tér-Fő utca-Jégverem utca-Bem rakpart-Csalogány utca-Nagy Imre tér-Fő utca-Bem József tér. Therefore, traffic will be limited between 4 pm and 5.20 pm. Moreover, József Bem Square will be closed to traffic between 5.20 pm and 7 pm.
As a result, trams nr 56A will commute between 4 pm and 4.40 pm on Alkotás Street and Villányi Street halting at the stops of tram nr 61. Trams nr 19 and 41 will commute only between South Buda – Szent Gellért Square and the Bécsi út/Vörösvári – Batthány Square, depending on the closures.
Trams nr 48 and 49 will only commute on the Buda side, and their final stop will be the Szent Gellért Square, while buses nr 7 and 133E will go on the Szabadság Bridge and the Múzeum Boulevard.
Bus nr 105 will not stop at the Clark Ádám Square and the Várkert Bazár stations and will go on Attila Street and Krisztina Boulevard. Buses nr 11 and 111 will touch Széll Kálmán Square instead of Batthány Square. Meanwhile, bus nr 39 will go to Fazekas Street instead of Batthány Square.
During the closure of the Bem József Square (5-7 pm), trams nr 19 and 41 will commute on the Margit Boulevard-Széll Kálmán Square-Krisztina Boulevard route. It will halt at the stops of tram nr 17 and 56A. Bus nr 109’s final stop will be the Margaret Bridge instead of the Batthány Square.
On Sunday morning, a ceremonial flag raising will take place on Kossuth Square, near the Parliament. Therefore, trams nr 2, 2B and 2M will commute only until the square.
In the afternoon, there will be a march on the Kálvin tér-Vámház körút-Fővám tér-Szabadság híd-Szent Gellért tér-Műegyetem rakpart route. The Budapest Transport Centre suggests everybody should use the metros and the trams instead of the buses. The M4 metro will commute more frequently this Sunday.
Between 4 pm and 5.30 pm, the Vámház Boulevard, the Fővám Square and the Szabadság Bridge will be closed. Therefore, trams nr 48 and 49, bus nr 15 and 115, and trolley bus nr 83M will not enter that area. Provided the crowd reaches a critical size, metro replacement bus M3 will stop at Astoria. Meanwhile, bus nr 9 and trolley bus nr 72M will only commute to Kálvin Square. Furthermore, airport bus 100E will stop also at Kálvin Square instead of Deák Ferenc Square.
Metro line M3 will follow its workday schedule on Saturday and Sunday and will not stop at Nagyvárad Square. Furthermore, between Kálvin Square and the Árpád Göncz City Centre, you may use the metro replacement bus.
Hungary’s leading politicians attended the funeral of Mária Wittner, a 1956 freedom fighter and former lawmaker of ruling Fidesz, in the Dunakeszi cemetery, near Budapest, on Friday afternoon. Wittner died on September 14, at the age of 85.
Aged only 19, she participated during the 1956 anti-Soviet revolution in the siege of the Hungarian Radio and tended to the wounded in Corvin Alley, the site of ferocious fighting. She was hospitalised with shrapnel wounds on November 4 as the Soviet Army overran the city.
Wittner was arrested in 1957 and sentenced to death a year later. She spent 200 days in prison before her sentence was reduced to life in 1959. She was released in March 1970, but was not granted an amnesty. She worked as a seamstress and cleaning lady until she retired in 1980.
Wittner took an active role after the 1989-90 political regime change and in the work of various 1956 organisations. From 2006 to 2014, she was a lawmaker of the Fidesz party. She wrote several memoirs of her role in the revolution and of her years in prison.
Wittner received the Grand Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit in 1991, along with the 1956 Medallion. She was decorated with the Hungarian Order of St Stephen, the highest honour in Hungary, in 2006. Her funeral was attended by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, President Katalin Novák, Parliamentary Speaker László Kövér and former President János Áder.
Addressing the ceremony, Fidesz lawmaker and government commissioner Szilárd Németh called Wittner
“an immaculate symbol of brave, self-sacrificing freedom-loving people”.
“She was a hero and at the same time a victim of 1956, a victim of the Communist terror that followed in the footsteps of the freedom fight and revolution of Hungarians,” he said.
Mária Wittner, a 1956 freedom fighter and former Fidesz MP, has died at the age of 85, her family announced on Wednesday. She died early on Wednesday in Budapest after a brief illness, according to her family. Her funeral will be arranged later.
Wittner’s early life
Born on July 9, 1937, Wittner was raised in a Carmelite convent and later went into state care. She dropped out of secondary school and worked as a typist in Szolnok, central Hungary, before moving to Budapest in early 1956.
During the 1956 Hungarian revolution, Wittner participated in the siege of the radio station and tended to the wounded in Corvin Circus, the site of ferocious fighting. She was hospitalised with shrapnel wounds on November 4 as the Soviet Army overran the city.
She spent a few weeks in Austria but returned to Hungary and worked as a manual worker until her arrest in the summer of 1957. She was sentenced to death on July 23, 1958 and spent 200 days in prison before her sentence was reduced to life in 1959. Wittner was released in March 1970, but was not granted an amnesty. She worked as a seamstress and cleaning lady until she retired in 1980 on a disability pension.
After the 1989-90 change in political system, she took an active role in the work of various 1956 organisations. From 2006 to 2014, Witter was an MP of the now ruling Fidesz party. She wrote several memoirs of her role in the revolution and of her years in prison.
Wittner received the Grand Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit in 1991, along with the 1956 Medallion. She was decorated with the Hungarian Order of St Stephen, the highest honour in Hungary, in 2006. She was the honorary citizen of the town of Dunakeszi, and Budapest’s 8th and 21st districts.
As the new year begins, it is officially time to start marking the dates of long weekends and national and public holidays in our calendars.
Long weekends and working day swaps
Typically, in Hungary, if a public holiday falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday, the day before the public holiday (Monday) or the day after it (Friday) will be designated as a day off. This way, we can have a so-called long weekend. In return, a Saturday (usually one week before or after the public holiday) will be designated as a working day.
In 2022, our national holiday on 15 March, commemorating the Revolution of 1848, and All Saints’ Day (1 November) will both fall on a Tuesday.
This means that Hungarian employees will have two four-day weekends, but they have to make up for the working days that fall on the two Mondays by working on another weekend, writes Magyar Nemzet.
Easter Monday will fall on 18 April, and the four-day Easter weekend will begin on 15 April, on Good Friday.
Employees will not have to work on Whit Monday (also known as Pentecost Monday), which will fall on 6 June this year. The last month of the year will also bring three days off:
in 2022, 24 December will fall on Saturday, and the second day of Christmas, 26 December, will fall on Monday.
Although in 2020, opposition Jobbik submitted to Parliament a proposed amendment to the labour code that would make 24 December a public holiday, it is officially still not a public holiday. Nonetheless, many employees have a shortened workday or a day off that they have to make up for earlier.
The national day on 23 October, commemorating the Hungarian Revolution, Labour Day on 1 May, and the first day of Christmas on 25 December will fall on Sundays.
The first day of the new year, as well as our national holiday, Saint Stephen’s Day on 20 August, will fall on Saturdays.
Other significant dates
4 June marks a day of mourning and remembrance in Hungary, the day when the Treaty of Trianon was signed in Versailles in 1920, and Hungary lost 71.4% of its former territory. In 2020, 4 June was declared a national holiday in Romania.
6 October was also declared a national day of mourning in 2001, when state commemorations remind us of the heroes of the 1848/49 revolution and freedom fight.
Hungary’s flag was hoisted and lowered to half-mast in front of Parliament on Thursday morning, in commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the defeat of the 1956 uprising against Soviet rule.
The flag was lowered in a military ceremony, with army chief Major General Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi attending. A black flag and a Hungarian flag with a hole in its middle, emblematic of the revolution when demmonstrators removed the Soviet-inspired coat of arms from it, is also flown from Parliament today.
Photo: MTI/Zoltán Máthé
Commemorations will be held throughout the day in plot 301 of the public cemetery in Rákoskeresztúr where the revolutionaries were buried.
Events will conclude with a concert in the St Stephen Basilica in the evening.
President János Áder in the Rákoskeresztúr cemetery where many of the martyrs of the 1956 revolution rest, including Imre Nagy, the PM of the revolution. Photo: MTI/Zoltán Máthé
Péter Márki-Zay, the opposition’s prime ministerial candidate, addressing supporters at a commemoration of the 1956 revolution in Budapest on Saturday, said the message of joining together embodied in uprising 65 years ago was still relevant today, and next year’s general election would be a “colossal battle”.
Márki-Zay said the battle was over “the freedom of the Hungarian nation”. “Together for a Free Hungary!” he declaimed.
He called for the ruling Fidesz party to be denied a parliamentary majority next spring.
“With total national unity, now we can demonstrate that we are the majority,” he said, adding that the current power holders were “morally unacceptable”.
Márki-Zay, who is also the mayor of Hódmezővásárhely, said the opposition’s current battle should be inspired by the youth of 1956, “but it should also be peaceful, not armed”.
Joint opposition commemoration event on October 23 Photo: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt
“We’re fighting for a country of love,” he said, adding that for this, every single Hungarian was needed.
Speaking at the joint event of Hungary’s opposition parties, Márki-Zay said that people today were as sick and tired as they had been in 1956. They were fed up, he insisted, with the “party state”, with “falling behind the West”, and with “poverty, intimidation, political cronyism, mounting Russian influence and hate campaigns.”
“Only together can we win,” he said, adding: “Go Hungary! Go Hungarians!”
Joint opposition commemoration event on October 23
Photo: MTI/MTVA
Joint opposition commemoration event on October 23
Photo: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt
Joint opposition commemoration event on October 23
Photo: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt
Márki-Zay pledged to hold a referendum on adopting a new constitution and an independent judiciary, and he vowed for Hungary to join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. He promised freedom of the press, the autonomy of local government and a new electoral law. He also vowed that Hungary would join the single currency.
The prime ministerial candidate also promised to keep Hungary’s fence on the southern border intact. But, he added, “criminal migrants imported by Fidesz” would be expelled from the country.
Officials who had profited from migration and deals to import the Chinese coronavirus vaccine “for double the market price”, as well as ventilators that went unused, would be held accountable, he said.
Márki-Zay said Hungary would be a place in which skin colour nor race would not be factors in determining a person’s opportunities. “Even Fidesz politicians” would be free to declare their homosexuality, he added.
Joint opposition commemoration event on October 23
Photo: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt
Joint opposition commemoration event on October 23
Photo: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt
Joint opposition commemoration event on October 23
Photo: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt
He insisted that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s family and friends were also in the fight for the country, “so we must be ready for lies and slander campaigns”. He said the opposition would be landed with accusations of “settling migrants”, plans to “put up prices” and of conspiring with [former Socialist prime minister] Ferenc Gyurcsány, against whom, he added, allegations of corruption had been left unproven after 12 years.
Referring to government tax and support measures announced before the election, he insisted Fidesz “has even started working for you” under the pressure of a resurgent opposition.
He said young people would have the biggest role to play in spreading the opposition’s message ahead of the election.
Jobbik leader Péter Jakab noted that a year ago six opposition party leaders vowed to put their candidates running for the post of prime minister on a common stage today. “Here were are; we’re together and we’ll win”
Joint opposition commemoration event on October 23
Photo: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt
Joint opposition commemoration event on October 23
Photo: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt
Klára Dobrev, the Democratic Coalition MEP who lost to Márki-Zay in the primary run-off, said that being a democrat meant embracing diversity and encouraging diversity in everyday life. This, she added, would be a great strength in the battle with the “monolith system of Viktor Orbán”.
“Next spring, we either win together or we all fail. This is our responsibility,” she added.
Gergely Karácsony, the mayor of Budapest who stepped aside before the run-off, said the opposition was getting ready for “a gentle revolution” in the spirit of fulfilling the promise of October 23, 1956, and 1989.
He insisted that October 23, 2021, marked the birth of “the fourth republic”, making Hungary “our common homeland once again”.
All those who competed in the opposition’s primary then took to the stage together at the end of the event.
The heroes of Hungary’s 1956 revolution fought for independence, democracy and humanity, a state secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office said in Bonyhád, in south-western Hungary, commemorating the 65th anniversary of 1956, on Saturday.
“The revolution broke out spontaneously in October 1956, which is why the event could be interpreted as a moment of manifestation of the Hungarian people’s soul,” Árpád János Potápi, who is in charge of the policy for Hungarian communities abroad, said.
“Those who get to know about 1956 will also get to know the community of Hungarians,” he said.
“The battles in 1956 claimed some 2,600 lives, including victims in Bonyhád: 16-year-old collier student Jenő Szakács, who died in the Mecsek mountains, and 19-year-old Red Cross worker Piusz Domokos, who was shot in Budapest,” Potápi said, adding that
200,000 people fled to the West to escape retaliation after the revolution. “Those were young, intelligent and hardworking people whom the homeland has missed ever since,” he said.
Referring to next spring’s general election, Potápi said: “Let’s not allow those to return to power for whom Hungary does not matter. Let’s defend the honour of the 1956 revolution against those who have smeared it already many times,” the state secretary said, referring to events fifteen years ago when commemorations of 1956’s 50th anniversary were marred by violence.
Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on Facebook on Saturday, marking the anniversary of the outbreak of the anti-Soviet revolt, said that
despite reports aired on Radio Free Europe in October 1956, suggesting imminent international intervention to support the Hungarian revolution, “nobody came to help”.
“We, Hungarians, wanted to belong to the free world, but that world left us high and dry,” Szijjártó said, adding that the country lost not only its fight but also “freedom for more than three decades”.
“We lost tens and hundreds of thousands: those that died, those that were left crippled for life, and those that had to flee and could never return to their homeland,” the minister said.
“Salutations to the heroes, shame on the deserters, long live free Hungary,” Szijjártó said in his entry.
One of Hungary’s most celebrated historical events happened when the people of Hungary revolted against the Soviet tyrranny exatly 65 years ago.
The entire country and every Hungarian diaspora around the world commemorated the heroes of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, who gave their lives for freedom. Thousands of people attended the commemoration march in Budapest. You can read more about it HERE.
As part of the main event, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán held his speech of commemoration and current affairs. You can find the PM’s speech HERE.
And after nightfall, several venues in Budapest were lit up in national colours to remember the heroes of freedom and commemorate the events of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution against the Soviet invaders.
You can see the beautiful photos down below.
The House of Terror Museum lit up in Hungarian national colours for the 65th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution on October 23rd, Budapest
Photo: MTI/Mohai Balázs
The House of Terror Museum lit up in Hungarian national colours for the 65th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution on October 23rd, Budapest
Photo: MTI/Mohai Balázs
The House of Terror Museum lit up in Hungarian national colours for the 65th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution on October 23rd, Budapest
Photo: MTI/Mohai Balázs
But not only the House of Terror Museum received the festive light show treatment, but Imre Nagy’ statue as well. He was a former de facto Prime Minister and one of the leaders of the 1956 Revolution.
Imre Nagy’s statue lit up in Hungarian national colours for the 65th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution on October 23rd, Budapest
Photo: MTI/Mohai Balázs
Imre Nagy’s statue lit up in Hungarian national colours for the 65th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution on October 23rd, Budapest
Photo: MTI/Mohai Balázs
Imre Nagy’s statue lit up in Hungarian national colours for the 65th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution on October 23rd, Budapest
Photo: MTI/Mohai Balázs
The Fisherman’s Bastion, the Foreign Affairs Ministry and one of the buildings of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics was also decorated with the tricolour light show.
The Fisherman’s Bastion and surrounding area lit up in Hungarian national colours for the 65th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution on October 23rd, Budapest
Photo: MTI/Mohai Balázs
One of the buildings of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics lit up in Hungarian national colours for the 65th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution on October 23rd, Budapest
Photo: MTI/Mohai Balázs
The Ministry of Foreig Affairs and the Bem statue lit up in Hungarian national colours for the 65th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution on October 23rd, Budapest
Photo: MTI/Mohai Balázs
Each Hungarian community has its own memories of the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising and its anniversary is marked not only in towns and cities across Hungary but in neighbouring countries and in the Hungarian diaspora as well, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office told a commemoration in Budapest on October 23.
“Lights of commemoration will certainly be lit at the Etoile in Paris, in North and South America, in Europe, as well as in Australia where Hungarian communities come together to celebrate and remember,” Gergely Gulyás said.
The revolution “did not stay within the Trianon borders: each country with a Hungarian community had sympathy for Hungary’s freedom fight,” he added.
Gulyás said 1956 was a great shared experience, the shared experience of freedom won in unequal struggle, that of joy and hope, and then, after November, the experience of defeat, grief and retaliation.
The 1956 freedom fight was the biggest historical miracle in the history of Hungarian statehood, Gulyás said. A revolution that had no pre-planned script, financial background or armed resources, only a common intention and will.
People knew they wanted to live in freedom, in an independent Hungary, where they can decide their own destiny. Everywhere they had the courage to go out in the street and face the guns, and on October 23 they won. Neither the police, nor the army was an insurmountable obstacle for them, and at first it seemed that not even the Soviets would be, the minister said.
“Hungarians have always had to fight for freedom, and this is no different today,” Péter Szilágyi, the prime minister’s commissioner for Hungarian communities abroad, said in front of the 1956 memorial plaque at the House of Hungarians in New York on Saturday.
“Those who left their homeland in 1956 sought freedom,” he said, adding that the Hungarian government recognised the diversity of the Hungarian population, with Hungarians in the homeland, abroad and the diaspora each having a place in the nation.
He said Hungarians in the United States should be proud of their Hungarianness, history and freedom. “Only a strong community can build a strong nation,” he added.
Szilágyi addressed a 1956 commemoration of the Hungarian Consulate General in New York and attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the 1956 New York Memorial. On Sunday he will speak at the 1956 commemorations organised by Hungarian communities in Passaic, New Jersey, and New Brunswick.
