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Obama proud that Orbán backed down on a public issue because of American pressure – VIDEO
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Budapest, January 28 (MTI) – Pressure exerted by the US administration over the Homan statue hindered rather than helped settlement of the issue, the Prime Minister’s Press Office said in a statement on Thursday.
US President Barack Obama’s speech on Thursday to mark international Holocaust Memorial Day included remarks about plans in Hungary to erect a statue in honour of Bálint Hóman, the drafter of WW2-era anti-Jewish laws.
Obama said: “[W]hen a statue of an anti-Semitic leader from World War Two was planned in Hungary, we led the charge to convince their government to reverse course … This was not a side note to our relations with Hungary, this was central to maintaining a good relationship with the United States, and we let them know”, Obama told a gathering at the Israeli embassy in Washington.
Press chief Bertalan Havasi said in a statement in response that “there was pressure put on Hungary concerning the Homan statue but Prime Minister Viktor Orbán firmly rejected this … Generally speaking, foreign pressure only obstructs getting matters resolved. The Hungarian prime minister’s position is that the American government would have done better staying out of this.”
Plans for the Homan monument elicited sharp protest both in Hungary and abroad, including Jewish organisations, US congressmen and diplomats. After Orbán said the plans were incompatible with Hungary’s constitution in December last year the Hóman Foundation withdrew plans to erect the statue in Székesfehérvár, in western Hungary.
How about Mr Obama, addressing Romanian, Slovakian,Serbian and Ukrainan leaders because they prohibit Hungarian minority to speak and study on their native language? How about standing up for those minorities whom have been discrimatong against in the last century? How about talking the systematic killing of Hungarians on these territories? How about the Hungarocaust which has been ongoing in the last 100 years? Or Mr. President, Hungarian life doesn’t matter?