11 October 2006
Tony Blair appeared alongside the Hungarian PM Ferenc Gyurcsany to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1956 uprising.
Read the statement in full
Prime Minister:
Thank you very much indeed Andrew, thank you everyone. It is my pleasure to come here this afternoon and say a few words in tribute to the uprising of 1956 in special tribute to all those who made such sacrifices for the future of Hungary, and to remember just for a moment what extraordinary events they were and how it is very easy that we in a democracy like our own take these things for granted. I was obviously a very, very young boy when the uprising happened and it was only later in life that I learnt about it, but all the way through the time that I was growing up in politics, when people often knew, particularly on the Left, the truth about what was happening under communism, the examples of those that stood out and tried to fight for freedom were immensely inspiring to everybody and they offered a completely different perspective and vision of the right way forward. And if we just cast our minds back for a moment to that time and to those days from the end of October onwards into early November, it was an extraordinary act of bravery for people to come out and make a stand in the way that they did, and when freedom eventually came to Hungary years later, I think everyone could look back and see in the sacrifice that those people made at that time why it was important and why ultimately you can never suppress the human desire to live in liberty.
And now of course we face a Europe that is completely different, and that again I think is something that it is worth us recalling today. Now we face a unified Europe with Hungary a proud independent sovereign nation in the European Union and we face a situation in which all of us have not just now a common heritage from the past, but a common and shared future in which we can build a Europe that is based on values that are shared throughout the entire European Union.
Now democracy is a difficult thing, as we all know, and it requires courageous leadership and decision making. I am delighted I have got my good friend, Ferenc here, the Hungarian Prime Minister, who has had his fair share of difficult decisions to take and has done so with a great deal of courage in rising to the challenges his country faces. And I just think for the future what we have to recognise is that democracy is difficult, it imposes enormous pressures on people, but in the end there is something that is immensely calming and decent about the idea that governments in the end are decided by the ballot, by people acting freely, able to cast their vote, able to decide on the type of society and future they want. And we should never ever forget what a privilege it is to have that democracy and liberty and how we should nurture it and care for it.
And that is why I think the Hungarian uprising struck such a chord in this country too. And we, I am proud to say, were one of the first countries to try and give help to it, and I think I am right in saying that many thousands of Hungarians who had to come into exile came here, some of whom I am sure, in fact many of whom are here today. And isn’t it a wonderful thing to think that even stretching back over these decades, that that bond of common desire for liberty held us together then and now unites us today.
So I think it is a very proud moment for us to be able to host here in the buildings of our parliament this event and to say to you Ferenc and to your colleagues welcome to everybody here from the Hungarian community in this country, and to those who have travelled from Hungary for this event today, we are delighted and privileged to have you here today. Thank you for coming and thank you for helping us celebrate what was a moment of very great pride, not just for the people of Hungary but for the whole of humanity. What happened over those weeks was a blow struck not just for people in Hungary, but for the values of democracy, and freedom and justice throughout the world and that is why we are very proud to have you here today.
Thank you.
Mr Ferenc Gyurcsany
Many, many thanks for the invitation and having this opportunity to meet in (INAUDIBLE) this fantastic revolution.
Mr Prime Minister, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen and my friends, and especially welcoming the real heroes of ‘56 who are here celebrating together this fantastic historical event of Hungary. In the last couple of weeks perhaps you know I used to have some problems with my own words. Avoiding these kind of misunderstandings (INAUDIBLE) very unusual in my life, not speaking freely and openly about using my peoples and lifting our hat in front of the revolution. Very shortly, in Europe’s isolation today we have only one way of being true to Hungary, and that is never to betray among ourselves and anywhere what the Hungarian heroes died for, never to condemn among ourselves and everywhere, even indirectly, those who killed them. Do you know who wrote these sentences on the Hungarian Revolution in 1956? No less than Albert Camus who thought in those days that Hungarian blood was such a great asset of Europe that every drop had to be protected.
1956 will always remain a point of reference for us Hungarians. The revolution that seemed to fail back then could finally win, even if only a generation later in 1989. Our political fatherland, the Third Hungarian Republic, is the direct heir to the Revolution. Not only Hungary, but a unified new Europe is also a successor of ‘56. The unification of a divided Europe ought to have been completed then several generations later, or perhaps a little later in 1968. In October 1956 we did not fight for the free and democratic Hungary only, but also for the creation of a Europe that is not divided. That fight was not in vain, even it could be victorious only a generation later after the political changes, because its true climax can be manifested in the birth of a borderless European Community of values. Of course many things have changed over the past 50 and the last 15 years. Today the greatest courage is needed in Hungary not to build but to pull down barricades.
To recapture the national holiday, yes October 23rd must be seized back from politics so that nobody (INAUDIBLE) Republicanism to ‘56. We must make sure that Europe and the world (INAUDIBLE) just because of the festivities, and not the breaking news. Indeed the revolution and freedom fight of my nation, my fatherland in ‘56 deserves the attention of the world. The main reason is not that a part of the world can rightfully feel remorse about leaving the (INAUDIBLE) of Hungarian freedom to fend for itself alone half a century ago, but mainly because 1956 was one of the first loud cries that shattered the heavy silence of the continent, saying that a division of Europe was unacceptable, that Europe, this big community, must reunify.
Time magazine is one of the most respected news magazines in the world. They say it is the reflection of the history of an era if you look at who is elected by them for Man of the Year and featured on the front page. Well the cover of the 1956 special issue is a portrait of a Hungarian man, the image of a Hungarian freedom fighter. Behind him are (INAUDIBLE) and a young woman, and of course the national colours, with a hole in the middle, but the coat of arms of the dictatorship is cut out. You most probably have seen it. It is an idealised image but the faces of the figures are really the face of the revolutionaries, the faces of free Hungary.
I am telling you this because actually 1956 does have a human face for me, it has a face like the imaginary man elected for the Man of the Year on that old magazine cover, but it is also as specific as the image of (INAUDIBLE) the Prime Minister who suffered martyrdom, or the faces of the lads of (INAUDIBLE) or who have the face of Árpád Göncz the first President of the free Hungary whom you will know very well.
1956 is the common denominator of the Hungarian nation. We were able to find a common denominator of many faiths, identities and traditions of the nation 50 years ago. If you like the heroes of ‘56 are the founding fathers of the Republic, the founding fathers of the new Hungary that is based on a freedom of social solidarity, a free and European state that was conceived in ‘56 and born in ‘89.
27 October is the most important day of the Republic, it is a day (INAUDIBLE) nation and I hope that (INAUDIBLE) is a day (INAUDIBLE) in the hearts of all Europeans. We hope that we can welcome you and your countrymen in Budapest and Hungary to commemorate the Hungarian Revolution and freedom fight.
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