On Monday Bertalan Havasi, head of the Prime Minister’s Press Office, informed Hungarian news agency MTI that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has sent a letter of condolence to the bereaved family of the late George H. W. Bush.

“It is with deep sorrow that we have heard that George Herbert Walker Bush, an outstanding American patriot and a friend of Hungary, has left us. Please accept my deepest personal condolences and those of the whole Hungarian nation”, the Prime Minister wrote.

Mr. Orbán continued: “The Hungarians will always remember him and be grateful for everything that President Bush did for the dismantling of the Iron Curtain, and to free Hungary and Central Europe from Soviet oppression.”

“His visit to Hungary in 1989 gave us hope and encouragement at a critical moment”, Mr. Orbán wrote, adding that “We will never forget his noble and firm determination to ensure historic changes in our region”.

In closing the Prime Minister wrote, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Bush family at this difficult time”.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)