Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is set to deliver a speech marking the anniversary of Hungary’s anti-Habsburg revolution of 1848-49 on March 15 at the birth house of 19th-century poet and revolutionary Sándor Petőfi.
Zoltán Kovács, the state secretary for international communication and relations, said on Facebook that the operative board overseeing the safety aspects of the March 15 celebrations has concluded that the scheduled events can go ahead as planned. The traditional award ceremony for handing over the Kossuth and Széchenyi Prizes will be held on Tuesday, the eve of the holiday, Kovács said. The state commemorations on March 15 will, as always, begin with the hoisting of the national flag in front of Parliament, he said. Commemorations will also take place in the southern Hungarian town of Kiskőrös, where Petőfi was born 200 years ago, with the prime minister delivering his speech at the revolutionary poet’s birth house at 3pm, Kovács said.