Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has greeted Hungarians around the world in a letter on the occasion of the anniversary of the 1848/49 revolution and freedom fight, the prime minister’s press chief told MTI.
“Let there be peace, liberty and concord,” the prime minister wrote, quoting 19th century Hungarian writer Mór Jókai. “And to this day it is these words that express what we Hungarians desire,” he wrote.
“We want peace in our immediate surroundings and the broader world, the liberty of self-determination to shape our own life, and concord in our national affairs so that we can build a secure future for ourselves together with the peoples living with us in the Carpathian Basin,” the prime minister wrote.
“As the spiritual heirs of 1848 it is together that we stand up for and offer a helping hand to our Transcarpathian brothers and sisters who are in need and fleeing from war,” Orbán wrote. “We express our solidarity with the Ukrainian people together and defend our culture, way of life and the achievements related to policies for ethnic Hungarians together.”
“For us it is only natural that we close the door to ideologies that upend our homes but open the gates wide when members of the Hungarian nation who are in need or people fleeing for their lives come knocking,” he wrote.
Orbán said Hungarians had a clear vision of where the nation’s path led. “Following the lead of the heroes of 1848, we, too want a world in which we can live in peace and security, being not just free, but free Hungarians,” he said. Therefore Hungarians today must again resist all forms of external pressure and domestic attempts to sow division “that would endanger everything we have built together”, he added.
The prime minister thanked the Hungarian communities for their “cross-border unity which proved once again that no Hungarian is alone”.
“Long live Hungarian liberty! Long live the homeland!” Orbán concluded his letter.
In the featured photo illustration: PM Orbán in 2017 with Fidesz’s then slogan “Respect for the brave!” Photo by Tamás Kovács/MTI
