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Hungary passes 1956 Revolution declaration

A statement has been signed by four of the five official parliamentary parties on the 60th anniversary of Hungary’s anti-Soviet 1956 Revolution

A statement has been signed by four of the five, official parliamentary parties on the 60th anniversary of Hungary’s anti-Soviet 1956 revolution, calling for joint commemorations on the October 23rd holiday. 

MTI reports that the document was signed by the ruling Fidesz and the allied Christian Democrats (KDNP), the nationalist Jobbik party and green opposition LMP parties, while the Socialists (MSZP) refrained from signing, saying the declaration could be signed under normal circumstances but “the reality today” was different.

Speaker of Parliament László Kövér initiated the joint statement, “asking every Hungarian to bow in honor to the victims and heroes of the revolution together, wherever in the world they might be.”

The declaration states that the 1956 revolution and freedom fight is one of the most important and elevated moments of the history of the Hungarian nation. “Sixty years ago the nation united to shake off the shackles of an oppressing power and pay testimony to a free and democratic Hungary,” the document said.

What's more, the 60th anniversary of Hungary’s 1956 anti-Soviet revolution will be commemorated in a series of events in Berlin this week. Between October 24 and 28, videos will depict the events of 1956 at ten venues in the German capital.

Commemorations will formally start in the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin (CHB) cultural centre on Monday evening with the presentation of video interviews that Hungarian documentary filmmaker Réka Pigniczky made with Hungarian freedom fighters and witnesses who emigrated to Germany after 1956. The videos provide an overview of the unfolding of events in 1956, the retaliations and the future of some 200,000 Hungarians who made a home in a new country.

Starting on Tuesday, CHB will host a two-day international conference on changes that took place in the post-Stalinist era in Central and Eastern Europe and the fallout of 1956. Speakers include Elmar Brok, head of the EP’s Foreign Affairs Committee representing the German CDU party, CDU lawmaker Hartmut Koschyk and Lothar de Maiziere, the last prime minister of former East Germany, among others. On Tuesday evening, a commemoration will be held in the Berlin Concert Hall, to be addressed by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble and Hungarian Human Resources Minister Zoltán Balog. Afterwards, the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra will give a concert.