Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar sought to bring European leaders to Budapest for a major commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the 1956 revolution.
In the end, only European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa are attending on behalf of the EU leadership.
Late invitations and diplomatic tensions contributed to the absence of key figures, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Magyar had planned a major international commemoration on 23 October to mark the anti-Soviet uprising, saying the day after his landslide election victory that he wanted to welcome some of the world’s most senior leaders to Budapest.
“We really hope that on the 70th anniversary of the 1956 revolution, on October 23, when we will welcome world leaders here, either the US Secretary of State, the Vice President, or the President will be able to visit here,” Magyar told reporters on 13 April.
In June, Magyar personally invited Macron in Paris, extending similar invitations to Tusk in Warsaw, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Around 40 countries sent delegations to Budapest, though most EU member states were represented by ministers or parliamentary speakers rather than heads of government. Moldovan President Maia Sandu and Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze also travelled to the Hungarian capital.
“It was a mistake that they set expectations so high,” István Szent-Iványi, a foreign affairs expert and former diplomat, told Euronews.
“Europe and its individual member states are struggling with a thousand problems, and they didn’t feel that it would be worth coming,” he said.
Euronews reached out to the Hungarian government but had not received a response by the time of publication.
Late invitations
Sources close to the Hungarian government, speaking on condition of anonymity, said said the ceremony was complicated by delays in sending official invitations, many of which were not dispatched until September, when leaders’ schedules were already full.
Tusk had already scheduled a trip to India, while Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had planned a visit to Kuwait.
One source said the government had acted in good faith but that communication between the prime minister’s office and the foreign ministry had been poor.
“We will do better in the future,” the source added.
Remarks irk Paris and Kyiv
Magyar’s comments linking riots in France to migration may have contributed to Macron’s decision not to attend.
“Seeing this senseless destruction and unjustified violence, perhaps it is now clear to everyone why Hungary takes the toughest possible stance on migration,” Magyar wrote in a social media post last Sunday, drawing criticism in Hungary and France.
The following day, the French embassy in Budapest announced that Macron would not attend, adding that his visit had never been confirmed by France.
On Wednesday, Macron criticised what he called “stupid comments” by foreign leaders linking migration to the unrest. Besides Magyar, US President Donald Trump and Tusk had made similar remarks.
“We’ve had people claiming that we were invaded by hordes of migrants and Islamists, which is completely false,” Macron said. “The fact is that all those speaking ill of our country right now are people who don’t love our country. And those people irritate me.”
Magyar has also faced criticism over his invitation to Zelenskyy, as Euronews first reported last week.
At the EU summit in Brussels, Zelenskyy expressed openness to visiting Budapest, but Magyar downplayed the possibility just days later. Zelenskyy’s adviser Dmytro Lytvyn also pushed back against the remarks.
Ukraine is represented at today’s commemoration by its parliamentary speaker. The Ukrainian president’s office said the visit was arranged independently and was not intended to replace Zelenskyy’s attendance.
Dániel Hegedűs, deputy director of the Institut für Europäische Politik, said Magyar’s public comments had not helped the commemoration.
“Those social media appearances can be interpreted as interference in French domestic politics, and obviously did not facilitate Macron’s visit,” he said.
He added that Magyar’s response to Zelenskyy’s invitation, saying everyone had been invited, “sends the message to the partners that whether they come or not is not a strategic issue”.
Georgian prime minister’s presence stirs controversy
The guest list also includes Irakli Kobakhidze, Georgia’s controversial prime minister. suppression of dissent.
Brussels has criticised Kobakhidze’s Georgian Dream party for its close ties to Russia, its role in derailing Georgia’s EU integration path and its crackdown on dissent.
“We know it’s a pro-Russian oppressive regime, so it doesn’t really belong here, in the vicinity of a memorial to the 1956 revolution. But they say here that it’s protocol, everyone was invited, and he said he would come,” Szent-Iványi said.
This week, Georgia’s Constitutional Court began hearings on a request by the governing party to ban five pro-Western parties.
Von der Leyen and Costa attend
Von der Leyen and Costa are the most senior EU figures attending, signalling Brussels’ support for Magyar’s pro-European policies following the end of Viktor Orbán’s tenure.
"Six months ago the people of Hungary voted for a new chapter. To turn the page on years of division, of trust eroded, freedoms rolled back, prosperity undermined" von der Leyen said in Budapest.
Von der Leyen and Costa had initially been expected to miss the commemoration due to an EU-Gulf Cooperation Council meeting scheduled for Saturday in Riyadh. Its postponement last week cleared the way for both to attend in Budapest.
Szent-Iványi said that leading European missing the ceremony does not mean that they are turning their backs on Magyar.
“This is a modest list of participants; that’s a fact. But I think the presence of von der Leyen confirmed the message that this election meant Hungary returning to Europe”.