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October 23 – Hungarian parties, leaders commemorate the 1956 revolution – PHOTOS
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Hungary’s national flag was hoisted with military honours at Kossuth Square in front of Parliament on Friday morning, in a state commemoration marking the anniversary of the anti-Soviet revolt which started on October 23, 1956.
The ceremony was attended by House Speaker László Kövér, Defence Minister Tibor Benkő and Army Commander Ferenc Korom.
In light of the coronavirus pandemic, most state commemorations have been cancelled.
During the day, several feature-length films, documentaries and content commemorating 1956 will be streamed on the Nemzeti Ünnepek es Emléknapok YouTube channel.
Until Nov. 4, photos marking the most important sites of the freedom fight are shown around Budapest.
Orbán commemorates 1956
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán commemorated the 64th anniversary of Hungary’s 1956 anti-Soviet uprising together with freedom fighter Mária Wittner, on Friday morning.
The prime minister and Wittner, who was sentenced to death for her involvement in the 1956 uprising before the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, laid a wreath at a memorial in Budapest’s Corvin Lane, a site of gruesome fights during the revolution.
Opposition parties mark 1956 anniversary in joint video message
Hungary’s opposition parties paid tribute to the heroes of the anti-Soviet uprising of 1956 in a joint Facebook video message on Friday.
Péter Jakab, leader of conservative Jobbik, called October 23 a symbol of Hungarians’ desire for freedom.
“Regardless of whether someone was politically right or left-leaning, their background or beliefs, there was an agreement that oppression and exploitation needed to end,” Jakab said.
Tímea Szabó, the co-leader of liberal Párbeszéd, said this day represented justice, arguing that “progress cannot be about replacing our old overlords with new ones while millions are left on the side of the road with the overlords of the day swanning around in luxury while millions are still forced to struggle just to make ends meet”.
LMP co-leader Máté Kanász-Nagy said Oct. 23 had been the day when Hungary “woke up” and declared that it wanted to go in a new direction with new leaders. Erzsebet Schmuck, the party’s other co-leader, added that the national holiday was a symbol of Hungarians’ perseverance.
The people in the United States of America are about to elect their first socialist President, could communism be close behind.
Frank, I don’t know where you live and from what source you acquired your “ideology”. I met then Senator Biden several times [and so could anybody who went to the Wilmington, Delaware train station] while he was waiting for the Acela Amtrak train to take him to Washington, DC every morning. And if you wanted a longer discussion than 15-20 minutes, all you needed to do was to get a ticket and hop on the train with him. — He is fully people oriented, trustworthy, and man of his words. He is not a radical. He believes that change is necessary [but in small (i.e., achievable) steps] if the USA wants to reach the lofty goals formulated in the Declaration of Independence and in its current Constitution. Simply put, these are ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL, and they have the right to LIFE, LIBERTY, and THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. — As far as your “communism” is concerned, that never existed except in the first Christian communities in the Near East [mainly for self-preservation in a very hostile environment]. — So, before you jump to Trumpist conclusions, let us give Biden a chance to prove himself; Trump already did, to our chagrin.