August 20 – Opposition parties mark national holiday

Budapest, August 20 (MTI) – Hungary’s opposition parties marked the August 20 national holiday on Saturday, saying that the country had strayed from the path laid out by St Stephen, the founder and first king of the Hungarian state.

Jobbik

Jobbik party hold event in City Park (Városliget), where the Jobbik sympathizers could enjoy concerts and other performances.

Socialists

Gyula Molnár, the head of the Socialist Party, said in a statement that St Stephen founded a unified state based on European and Christian values, but Hungary’s current government questions these foundations. The government has turned against “our most important historical traditions”, Molnár said. He said the government causes damage when it “riles the people against the European Union” and ignores the most important Christian values. It does not represent the whole of the Hungarian nation and only favours its own politicians and “buddies”, Molnár insisted. Hungary deserves security and predictable development as well “normality” in public life. It also deserves a future within the EU, he said.

Democratic Coalition

The leftist Democratic Coalition (DK) said there was little in common between today’s Hungary and the Christian country that St Stephen founded. “There is no trace of the teachings of Christianity on the streets flooded with anti-refugee hate billboards,” DK spokesman Zsolt Gréczy said in a statement. As the Oct. 2 migrant quota referendum approaches, Hungary “is drifting further and further away from Europe”, he said. The government “wants to stray from the path of our state’s founder,” he added. But Gréczy said DK has faith that Hungary can find its way back to the path of St Stephen and Europe and that “the politics of hate” will fail.