Tőkés awarded Hungarian state honour

Budapest (MTI) – MEP László Tőkés, a hero of the 1989 Romanian revolution, has been awarded the Hungarian Order of Honour, the latest issue of the official gazette Magyar Közlöny said.

The reasons for the award were similar to the ones that were given on the occasion of Tőkés getting Romania’s Star National Order in 2009.

The Hungarian award, granted by President János Áder on the prime minister’s proposal, recognises Tokes’s courage, human dignity and merits in sparking the Timisoara (Temesvar) revolution that led to the fall of communist dictatorship and opened the road to freedom for Romania and Transylvanian Hungarians in 1989.

The Romanian award was granted to him by then President Traian Basescu in recognition of his exceptional courage, human dignity and historic role in Romania’s political regime change.

On March 3, 2016, however, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis stripped him of that award. The move was initiated in 2013 by then prime minister Victor Ponta after Tőkés suggested as a member of the European Parliament that Hungary should assume the status of a protective power over Transylvania.

Photo: MTI

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