August 20 – Opposition parties celebrate national holiday

Budapest, August 20 (MTI) – Public holidays are manifestations of national cohesion, they prove that a country or a city are not just a multitude of people, but a shared spirit and a shared fate, Socialist mayor of southern Hungary’s Szeged Laszlo Botka said in his address marking August 20 on Wednesday.

Botka referred to Saint Stephen, the founder of the Hungarian state, and said that the king had “done no less for the homeland than to save it and preserve it for posterity”. He also quoted Stephen as saying that “hatred is poisonous, it is detrimental, and you cannot build anything on that basis, a future the least”.

Socialist Party leader Jozsef Tobias said at a press conference marking the national holiday that “today’s Hungary is not democratic; it is characterised by autarchy, state-capitalism and feudal traits”, which should be replaced by a rule of law, freedom and social security. Tobias criticised the government for “preferring fight and aggression to peace and understanding, it strives for total control, believes in intimidation rather than dialogue, and seeks to dismantle the constitutional state”.