State Secretary Bence Rétvári attended a commemoration in Budapest’s Rákoskeresztúr Cemetery to pay tribute to victims of the communist regime, on Wednesday.
According to MTI, Rétvári said that communism was an “ideology corrupted to the roots, which does not in the least respect human dignity”. Still, he said, “communism is often referred to in public discourse … some would even say that there is room for communists and even Fascists” in Hungary, referring to remarks by Péter Márki-Zay, prime ministerial candidate of the united opposition. “Democrats should be automatically anti-communist and anti-Fascist,” he added. Between 1950-1953, one million Hungarians were prosecuted and 300,000 convicted. Some 800,000 people were deported to forced labour camps, and 200,000 fled the country after the failed anti-Soviet revolution of 1956. The Hungarian government works to “reinforce the family, the nation, and faith; where those institutions are strong there is no room for communism or Nazism”, the state secretary said.
Photo credit: MTI