Justice Minister Judit Varga said the crimes of Communism should be treated in the same way as Nazi crimes.
Speaking at the Victims of Communism Museum in Washington, DC., the minister said the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in the United States has a vital role in keeping the events of many decades ago in the minds of younger generations. History also provides lessons for the present, she said, adding that gaining an understanding of the events of 1956 should be available to everyone around the world. “This is a highly important exhibition,” she said. “I’m very glad that Americans and Hungarians set the exhibition up, depicting the horrors of Communism in an interactive way.” The museum is located in the government district in downtown Washington, DC, a few hundred metres from the White House.
At a panel discussion held with Hungarians who escaped the country in 1956 and made the United States their home, Minister Varga said Hungary’s critics often failed to understand Hungarian and central European history, adding that debates on the rule of law “should start with a history lesson” so that critics of the government gain an understanding of “our historical experience [and why] we reject certain political solutions”. In her speech to the Conservative Partnership Institute, Minister Varga said conservatism was not about being old-fashioned but about preserving values from the past and adapting them to the challenges of today. The minister said she sensed an optimistic mood ahead of the November mid-term elections in the US.