By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News reporting from Budapest, Hungary

BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Hungary’s rightwing government accused the United States on Tuesday of again abandoning the nation as it did during the 1956 Revolution against Soviet domination and communism.

“The revolution had failed because the U.S. had “abandoned” Hungarians,” said Gergely Gulyás, the head of the prime minister’s office, during a commemoration.

“The betrayal of yore from the West is mirrored in our everyday lives. Those who then weren’t bothered by the Hungarians’ captivity are now bothered by their freedom. Those unfazed by Hungary being forced into Soviet dependency are now disturbed by its independence…,” he added.

His remarks came amid mounting tensions between the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government, which has faced criticism over its perceived autocratic style and corruption.

Orbán, who has denied wrongdoing but refuses to answer questions about controversial tenders involving friends and family members, supports former President Donald J. Trump in his race to the White House.

“Those who had to do nothing for freedom in the past 80 years are now questioning the democratic commitment of those raising the flag of freedom during a dictatorship,” Gulyás stressed.

He told a crowd at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics that younger generations must be conscious that “our freedom today was born out of the 195the revolution.”

FREEDOM MARCH

At the 1956 freedom march from that same university to Bem Square near Margaret Bridge, “the fear of nearly a decade was lifted,” Gulyás said. The events “changed the course of history and reconnected a nation fragmented by the dictatorships of the 20th century,” he noticed.

Soon after, several thousand Hungarians, many walking with torches, remembering the freedom fighters, walked to Bem Square, where Hungary’s parliamentary speaker condemned the European Union’s alleged interference in Hungary’s affairs.

László Kövér said, “Hungary, which was meant to be merely a pawn to be knocked down in the chess game of the Eastern and Western powers, rebelled and, even if for a short time, became a bastion of a free and Christian Europe again,” he said. However, “The sacrifice of those thirteen days [of 1956] also obliges today’s generations.”

The 1956 revolution began on October 23, with a few hundred university students protesting Soviet repression. It snowballed to 200,000 protesters on the streets, with people rising up around the country.

They demanded an end to one-party rule and appealed for press freedom and democracy. But within two weeks — 100,000 Russian soldiers and thousands of tanks rolled into tow, devastating democratic hopes for another 35 years. Hungary was forced to remain a satellite state of the then Moscow-led Soviet Union until communism was toppled in 1989, after which the state collapsed in the early 1990s.

Kövér called the 1956 Hungarian revolution “a message to the bureaucrats in Brussels” that Hungary wouldn’t give up its sovereignty on issues ranging from opposing the war in Ukraine to traditional family values.

“Today’s young people can say ‘war is not peace.’ They can say that “the father is male and the mother is female.’ They can say that Hungary belongs to the Hungarians and Europe to the Europeans. And they can also say: ‘God, bless the Hungarians!’” he said.

LEADING BUREAUCRATS

“If today’s leading bureaucrats in Brussels are unable to understand this message, they will soon have to deal with hundreds of millions of deceived European citizens who will carry the European Union to its grave,” he argued.

Elsewhere in Budapest, Orbán’s primary political opponent, Péter Magyar, said it was “symbolic that the government that calls itself national has abandoned the flame of the revolution.”

He spoke while standing at the Flame of Revolution monument on Nagy Imre Square, named after the prime minister who led the revolution and was later executed by the Soviet-backed communists.

At 19:56 local time, Magyar lit the flame at the monument ahead of Wednesday’s massive protest of his Tisza party. Opinion polls suggest he is the biggest challenge to Orbán, who has ruled Hungary since 2010.

Magyar claims Orbán has turned Hungary “into one of Europe’s poorest and most corrupt nations,” with some 3 million people living below the poverty line.

Orbán says his government is improving the economy after inheriting decades of Communist and Socialist mismanagement.

Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.

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