European leaders join Hungary’s 1956 revolution commemoration as Magyar resets EU ties

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Numerous foreign guests representing countries across Europe visited Hungary’s capital on Friday to take part in an event commemorating the 70th anniversary of Hungary’s 1956 anti-Soviet uprising — and to signal a new chapter in their countries’ relations with Budapest after the ouster of former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

The visiting dignitaries — including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and president of the European Council Antonio Costa — were in Budapest at the invitation of Prime Minister Péter Magyar, who has spent his first months in office rebuilding Hungary’s ties with Europe that had unraveled under his predecessor.

Hungary’s government has not released a full list of the guests attending.

Orbán and his far-right Fidesz party for years antagonized the European Union, seemed to revel in stymieing the bloc’s decision making and grew ever closer to Russia.

Further, Orbán’s dismantling of democratic norms and alleged complicity in rampant corruption had led the EU to seek ways to circumvent his often-used veto power in important decisions, and to freeze billions in EU funding to Hungary to prevent its misuse.

Magyar, who took office in May, defeated Orbán in a landslide in an election in April, and his center-right, pro-European Tisza party now holds a two-thirds majority in Hungary’s parliament. Only three weeks after taking office, his government succeeded in unlocking 16.4 billion euros ($18.4 billion) in EU funds after implementing rapid reforms.

Early on Friday, Magyar placed flowers at the graveside of Hungarians who were killed during the popular 1956 uprising that began with a students’ march in Budapest on Oct. 23 and spread across the country.

Later, he oversaw a ceremonial raising of Hungary’s flag on Kossuth Square beside Parliament, accompanied by President András Baka and speaker of the national assembly Ágnes Forsthoffer.

In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Magyar said the ill-fated Hungarian Revolution was one of the brightest moments in the nation’s history, and that “it is even better if the whole world remembers this revolution and the Hungarians’ love for freedom.”

After revolutionaries successfully ousted Hungary’s Stalinist leader in October 1956 and Soviet troops were forced out of the capital, a directive from Moscow sent the Red Army back into Budapest two weeks later and brutally suppressed the revolution, killing as many as 3,000 civilians and destroying much of the city. Around 200,000 people fled the country, many never to return.

“I am very happy that the Hungarian voters have helped us and their country so we can celebrate the 70th anniversary in a truly free, independent, democratic, sovereign and European Hungary, for which they have fought and sacrificed a lot,” Magyar said in the interview.

Von der Leyen, the head of the EU’s executive Commission, was expected to deliver a speech alongside Magyar later in the day. She and other foreign dignitaries were scheduled to take part in a formal commemoration in the Parliament and attend a gala performance in the National Opera.