In 1956, too, we wanted a free and independent Hungary in a Europe of nations, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stressed on Wednesday in Budapest at a gala held at the Academy of Music on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the 1956 revolution and freedom fight.

The Prime Minister said on 23 October 1956 the Hungarian nation demanded back its ancient right, and wanted to freely decide about how to live.

“And even then, we wanted a Hungarian, meaning a European way of life for ourselves. A free and independent Hungary in a Europe of nations. And in this there was no contradiction because at the time the Western half of Europe was still indeed a common home of free nations,” he said.

Mr Orbán highlighted that when we think of the heroes of 1956, we first see young people before our eyes, “lads and girls of Pest” who were brave enough to raise their voices and weapons against the occupiers and their lieutenants.

“They were carried by their youth, they were carried by the faith that they could turn their country’s fate around,” he said.

He pointed out that young people felt that “if the Soviet world continues, then there will be nothing left of Hungarian life,” the history of a thousand years fades away, and “the red sludge takes away, burns and consumes everything, faith, culture, family, friends”.

It turns upside down everything that gives life meaning, and from which one can build a homeland, Mr Orbán added.

The Prime Minister said they had to do something, so they took up arms because they saw that there was no other way out.

They did so with the determination of people who were pushed to the edge of the precipice, and know full well that there is nowhere to retreat to. There is only one path left: “To fight for the foothold that was still theirs,” he said.

He stated that “we Hungarians only have this one country”, we have no other place under the Sun.

“Our dreams can only be conceived here, and only here in the Carpathian Basin can we create the great common work that we call Hungary and Hungarian culture,” he said.

Mr Orbán stressed that “we are the homeland, all of us,” this is the law, as is the fact that “there is a homeland only as long as there is someone to love her,” to make sacrifices for her.

“There is a homeland only where there are patriots as well.” “Wretchedness always adds up,” the question is “whether patriots are prepared to combine forces”, he said.

He took the view that in 1956 “we combined our forces” and “performed a miracle”. We elevated ourselves to heights never seen before, and to this day we are feeding off this miracle.

We paid a high price for it, but “Hungarian miracles do not come cheap,” the Prime Minister added.

According to the Prime Minister, freedom fighters gave the most beautiful, the absolute maximum and the most precious treasure that one can sacrifice for their country: They gave their lives, they gave their freedom, they accepted the fate of exile.

He said neither Europe, nor Hungary can survive if it turns against itself, and goes against everything that keeps it alive; if it breaks with the form of life conceived on the triple foundations of freedom, independence and Christian brotherhood which made Europe, and Hungary in it, the most successful continent in world history.

Mr Orbán said we must be grateful to our ancestors for the fact that “our Hungarian being could evolve during the course of long freedom fights which made us a great and noble people”.

He took the view that history is an ongoing challenge, a judgement and an aptitude test, and the fate of a people, the future of a nation, the survival or failure of a state stands or falls on the answers we give.

It is easy to take it for granted that we have a free and independent country called Hungary that is built upon noble ideals, but this country was not gifted to us, Mr Orbán recalled.

According to the Prime Minister, in the autumn of 1956 the Hungarian nation “entered a higher grade” with a historical performance whose moral radiation could be felt around the entire globe.

We have the generation of 1956 to thank for the fact that during the dark hours of history, even during the long years of Soviet occupation, “we preserved our courage and could hold our heads high” because we had something and someone to be proud of, he pointed out.

The Prime Minister stressed that the heroes of 1956 prevailed because they left to us, their successors as inheritance the greatness of courage and heroism.

He observed that, should the need arise, also today’s lads and girls of Pest would stand their ground just as gloriously as their ancestors did.

Mr Orbán said we Hungarians have gained the knowledge in a thousand years that we should always cast our gaze upon that which is permanent and enduring, “upon God, country, family”.

“Even today we cannot choose a better guiding star,” he underlined.

The Prime Minister said in conclusion, “Glory to the heroes”.

(MTI)