Hundreds of people gathered together early in the evening on Saturday outside the French Institute in Budapest, at the commemoration held in tribute to the victims of the Friday attacks in Paris.
Minister of Justice László Trócsányi reiterated that it was less than a year ago when he attended a similar commemoration here, in January, after the attack on the French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo. At the time, as he said, “we were hoping that such a horror cannot happen again”.
The Minister expressed his condolences to the victims’ relatives, and said: Hungary shares the mourning of France. We sympathise with the French nation, Mr Trócsányi said, who took the view that the attacks committed in Paris were not only attacks on France but „on all of us”; they were „attacks on all our common European values”.
“This is a time for mourning”, Mr Trócsányi stressed, reiterating that the Hungarian Government, too, ordered a day of mourning for Sunday. As he highlighted, “nothing can possibly justify such deeds”. Hungary says no to terrorism and barbarism, he added.
The Minister quoted from France’s declaration of human and civic rights of 1789, and drew attention to the fact that it is our common interest to protect our fundamental human rights and human dignity. We do not give up our freedom, Mr Trócsányi stated, who closed his speech by saying: “Long live France! Long live Hungary! Vive la France, vive la Hongrie!”.
At the event held with heightened police presence, Éric Fournier, Ambassador of France to Budapest, too, made a short speech, who also expressed the utter shock he felt in the wake of the event.
Many people lit candles and laid flowers outside the French Institute. Among the mourners who did so were former Foreign Minister János Martonyi, Antal Rogán, the Minister heading the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister and his wife, and Gergely Gulyás, MP for Fidesz, Zsuzsanna Hegedűs, Commissioner of the Prime Minister, András Heisler, President of the Alliance of the Hungarian Jewish Faith Commune, and several opposition politicians, including, among others, Márta Demeter, MP for MSZP, Benedek Jávor, MEP for the political party Párbeszéd Magyarországért and Antal Csárdi (LMP), Member of the Metropolitan General Assembly.
At the commemoration which began at 5.00 p.m., there were long lines of people outside the French Institute even an hour on. Young and elderly people and families, including several French nationals living in Hungary, remembered the victims of the Friday terrorist attacks in Paris by lighting candles, laying flowers and silently bowing their heads.
The Friday night bloody attacks claimed 128 lives, and some 300 people were injured. The terrorist organisation Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks committed in multiple locations.
(MTI)
