House Speaker László Kövér and Human Resources Minister Miklós Kásler have laid wreaths at the monument of the martyrs of the nation in Budapest to commemorate the victims of communism.
The event was organized by the Parliament Office in partnership with the Rákóczi Association to remember those affected during communist times.
Speaking at another commemoration, Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, said communist dictatorships had some 100 million victims worldwide. An estimated 700,000 Hungarians were deported to Soviet forced labor camps, where nearly half of them died. “There have been no statistics about the disabled, those with permanent physical or mental wounds,” he said.
According to MTI, Gulyás said communist rule ended in Hungary in 1989, but insisted that “the communists and their crimes are still with us”.
Gulyás also criticized Budapest’s management over their support of an exhibition on the liberation of Budapest in 1945, which Gulyás said evoked memories of Hungary’s Soviet occupation and the death of thousands of Hungarians. “Those that seek to find excuses for the murderers … cannot be believed even if they talk of democracy,” he said.
Photo credit: Origo