The acknowledgements were presented by President János Áder in the company of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Speaker of the House László Kövér on 15 March 2015 in the Dome hall of the Parliament.
We tend to talk little about the decisions of the days following the revolution, and we almost never talk about the ordinary days, and yet the new world in 1848 was not only brought about by street events and firing speeches – President János Áder emphasised at the ceremony at which the Kossuth and Széchenyi Prizes and the Orders of Merit of Hungary of 2015 were presented.
In his speech, the President recalled Ferenc Deák’s words, with which he advised those who were asking him to be “constant, stable and perseverant; everyone shall do everything for the homeland there where he was placed by his fate.”
“Today we commemorate the glorious days of the 1848 revolution across the country. We talk about the twelve points, the establishment of the Batthyány-government, about the first representative parliament and its most important decisions, like the abolition of serfdom or about media and industrial freedom. About the foundation of a civil society”, the President said.
According to Mr Áder, however, we talk less about the decisions taken in the days after the revolution, about the government’s internal conflicts, the organisation of a new public administration or the construction of the Chain Bridge in Budapest; and we almost never commemorate the ordinary days of back then: about the work of teachers, doctors, scientists, actors, who filled the frames of the freedom won by the revolution on 15 March 1848 with life.
“Yet the new world in 1848 was not only brought about by street events, firing speeches and rightful emotions. Everyday work had to be done back then as well. The civil Hungary could not have been established without that”, he emphasised.
According to the President, the greatest people never look for glory, yet a whole nation becomes greater, stronger and nobler thanks to their work.
“Our task on the national day is therefore to acknowledge the performance of those who show us an example every day how to be constant, stable and perseverant. I thank you for your work in the name of the whole Hungarian nation, which although only yours, the fruits they bear belong to the whole Hungarian nation as well”, Mr Áder said praising the recipients.
At the ceremony, thirty-two people received various grades of the Order of Merit of Hungary, thirteen artists received the Kossuth Prize, six people were presented a shared Kossuth Prize, fourteen people received the Széchenyi Prize and three a shared Széchenyi Prize.
The acknowledgements were presented by President János Áder in the company of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Speaker of the House László Kövér.
(MTI)
