Honorary citizens of Budapest

The Budapest City Council rewarded 8 outstanding people of the world of culture, science and sports with the title of honorary citizenships of Budapest on Friday, June 17, writes origo.hu.

The celebratory meeting of the City Council was held on June 17, in honour of the Day of the Independent Hungary on June 19. Since 2001, the date is the national Remembrance Day of the last Soviet soldiers leaving the country, while the last Saturday of June was appointed the Day of Hungarian Liberty.

Before the rewards were announced, István Tarlós, Mayor of Budapest emphasized that they were celebrating liberty, Budapest and its most exceptional citizens at the same time. Thus, he stated that the community needs role models who give strength, safety, show the way, do valuable and devoted work. Especially in our day and age, as the world is greatly changing, traditional values are getting questioned, ties are loosening and new, previously unimaginable challenges appear.

The Honorary citizens of Budapest are Gergely Bogányi, pianist, László Dózsa, actor and director, Tamás Freund, neurobiologist and neuroscientist, Csaba Hegedűs, Olympic Champion of wrestling, Judit Polgár, international chess grandmaster, and Péter Pál Varga, director of the National Centre for Spinal Disorders.

Miklós Szabó, opera singer, and Bódog Török, handball coach and former captain received the reward posthumously, hence, their relatives – Erik Szabó, grandson of Miklós Szabó, and Edit Török Bódogné Molnár, wife of Bódog Török – accepted the rewards. In his speech László Dózsa remembered his comrades of 1956 and shared his reward with all of those who sacrificed their precious lives for Budapest.