Hungarian defence minister Szalay-Bobrovniczky: Future belongs to free nations

The future belongs to free and independent nations that protect their citizens and their economic and moral values, Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said at a commemoration of the 1848-49 revolution and freedom fight on Thursday.

Speaking at the defence ministry’s central commemoration in Budapest, Szalay-Bobrovniczky said he was convinced that the future did not belong to “empires … following ideologies”, but to free and independent nations.

Szalay-Bobrovniczky: We’re in the “era of dangers”

“We have entered the era of dangers; the peace that we enjoyed for decades is now a thing of the past, a war is raging in our neighbourhood as well as in the Middle East,” he said.

The minister pointed out that the freedom fighters of 1848 had built their own army from scratch, with exemplary success.

“Today, our generation has had the opportunity to build our own army, the force guaranteeing the armed defence of the nation,” Szalay-Bobrovniczky said. “This is our task, and in that we are no different from the revolutionaries of 1848.”