Prime Minister Viktor Orbán commemorated the 64th anniversary of Hungary’s 1956 anti-Soviet uprising together with freedom fighter Mária Wittner.
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.
Hungary’s national flag was hoisted with military honours at Kossuth Square in front of Parliament. 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 were cancelled. At an event in the park of City Hall, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said coming together as a community was what gave importance to October 23, this day in 1956, and in 1989. Twice already, October 23 “reflected our better selves and our best ability”, Karácsony said. “This shows that despite the thousand and one differences separating us … there was something much stronger binding us together: our love for freedom and for our homeland,” he said, opening a portrait exhibition of women who played a role in 1956.
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