Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban warned of "Sovietisation" in the European Union and dangers posed by the refugee crisis on Sunday, as his nation marked 60 years since a doomed uprising against Kremlin domination.
Thousands of Hungarians attended rival rallies in their capital, Budapest, and a few scuffles broke out amid stark division over Mr Orban's populist rule, marring commemoration of a 1956 revolt that was crushed by the Soviet Red Army.
By far the biggest crowd massed outside parliament beside the Danube, where many people waved Hungary’s red-white-and-green tricolour with a hole cut in the middle, in honour of the revolutionaries who tore the Soviet emblem from the flag.
Mr Orban, who portrays his government as heirs to the “’56ers” and defenders of Hungary’s freedom, addressed the crowd from a stage emblazoned with the slogan: “Where heroes are not forgotten, there will always be new ones.”
As he appeared before thousands of people, however, several hundred whistled, booed and shouted “Viktator” in condemnation of what some Hungarians see as his increasingly authoritarian and anti-EU rule.
Gagging opponents
While building fences on Hungary’s borders to block migrants and opposing German-led plans to distribute refugees among member states, Mr Orban has also overseen what critics call dangerous moves to silence his opponents.
Outside parliament and at a rally of some 2,000 opposition supporters a few kilometres away, some people chanted "Nepszabadsag" – the name of a major leftist newspaper that was abruptly closed this month; its owners cited financial woes, but its journalists and media watchdogs called the move a blow against press freedom.
Mr Orban has shrugged off criticism at home and abroad, and on Sunday he told a mostly approving crowd that Hungary was still fighting for its freedom – only now the threat came from the EU and Brussels rather than the Soviet Union.
“The task of Europe’s freedom-loving people is to save Brussels from Sovietisation,” Mr Orban said, claiming that the EU was in danger of becoming a “modern-day empire” or “united states of Europe”.
Describing Hungarians as people who will fight for freedom “even in the most hopeless of situations”, Mr Orban said Budapest and not Brussels must decide on crucial questions for the country – including immigration issues.
"We Hungarians want to remain a European nation, instead of becoming a national minority in Europe, " he declared, having previously called the mostly Muslim migrants now reaching the continent a "poison" that threatens its security, culture and identity.
“As heirs to 1956 we cannot allow Europe to cut the roots that made it great and helped us survive the Soviet suppression. There is no free Europe without nation states and thousands of years of wisdom from Christianity,” Mr Orban said.
“We must close the border to stop the mass migration that flows from the south.”
Returning to another familiar theme, Mr Orban depicted Hungarians as defenders of Europe throughout history, and said they would stick to the task again now “even if attacked from behind, by those we are protecting”.
Poland's conservative president Andrzej Duda also spoke outside parliament, and told the crowd: "You can count on Poland, we march together in the toughest moments . . . Two countries which were built on Christian foundations and are now free in the unified Europe."
‘Revolutionary change’
A couple of kilometres away at a rally of leftist parties, former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany urged fractious opposition groups to unite to ensure that parliamentary elections due by spring 2018 brought about "a revolutionary change at the ballot box . . . to bring this terrible situation to an end".
“Are we ready to make history at the next election? I am – are you?” said Mr Gyurcsany, who stepped down as premier in 2009 after a prolonged crisis and scandal that left Hungary’s Socialists in disarray and boosted Mr Orban’s popularity.
Throughout the weekend, Hungarians attended events to commemorate the 1956 uprising, which ended in a Soviet crackdown that killed some 2,500 people, injured thousands and forced about 200,000 to flee to the West as refugees.
“It’s sad that Hungary is split about the refugee issue, about whether the government is corrupt and other things,” said Judit, a Budapest teacher laying flowers at a monument on Sunday morning.
“Today, we should be remembering 1956, not arguing amongst ourselves.”
