Former Hungarian President Árpád Göncz Laid To Rest

  • 9 Nov 2015 8:00 AM
Former Hungarian President Árpád Göncz Laid To Rest
Thousands of mourners gathered in Budapest’s Óbuda cemetery on Friday afternoon to attend the funeral of Árpád Göncz, Hungary’s first democratically elected president. The ex-president, who held office for two consecutive terms from 1990 to 2000, died on October 6 at the age of 93. Imre Mécs, a close friend and former Free Democrat, then Socialist lawmaker, called Göncz the best Hungarian president of all times.

Mécs referred to Göncz as “an advocate of the poor, the oppressed and those deprived of their rights”.

Márton Benedek, the late president’s eldest grandson, said that Göncz had worked throughout his life for Hungary’s becoming a westerntype liberal democracy based on freedom, human rights and social justice.

Asztrik Várszegi, Archabbot of Pannonhalma, said Göncz had been a man who loved the people, the Hungarian nation and humankind, a man “filled with a strong desire for freedom”.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán commemorated Göncz at Lendava (Lendva), a border town in north-eastern Slovenia, on Friday evening. “We paid tribute that is due him as the president of all of us, a president of the nation.

We thank him for what he has done for the homeland and for us,” the prime minister said.

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MTI photo: Koszticsák Szilárd

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