The revolution and freedom fight of 1956 was not only commemorated in Hungary but in many Hungarian communities of the neighbouring countries, Europe and North America. The State commemorations started on Thursday by the hoisted national flag in front of Parliament. President János Áder paid tribute to Imre Nagy, the martyred prime minister, at his grave in eastern Budapest’s New Public Cemetery. Áder later said at a gala event held in the Budapest Opera House that the revolution of 1956 was proof that the sacrifices were worthwhile and it was worth “taking a brave, moral stance,” in 1956.
Parliamentary Speaker Laszló Kövér attended a ceremony marking the anniversary in western Hungary’s Kapuvár and said the revolution had demonstrated that “there is a way to fight oppression”. “Hungarians always knew that their country cannot be crushed,” Mihály Varga, the economy minister, told a commemoration at Széna square, one of the famous sites of the revolution, in Budapest. Agriculture Minister Sándor Fazekas said in Karcag, eastern Hungary, that Hungarians were the first nation to raise arms against the Stalinist authoritarian rule and communism.
Deputy leader of the radical nationalist Jobbik party János Volner called for a “freedom fight in a spiritual sense” and pointed to negative demographic trends, and the danger of Hungary’s soil being purchased by foreign investors as examples at a commemoration in Corvin place. Civil groups urged a more active civil society at an anti-government demonstration staged at central Budapest’s Lujza Blaha square. An opposition E-PM politician said Hungary will be a successful country only if it recognises that a lack of freedom is the source of all problems. The freedom fight of 1956 shows that even the most feared power can be confronted amid the most hopeless situation, the opposition green LMP party’s co-leader, András Schiffer said.
via MTI and politics.hu photo: Attila Béres (mno.hu)