Gabor Fodor, the leader of the Hungarian Liberal Party, said the hope of a modern liberal Hungary is still alive, that is the hope that the Hungarian people will again be able to attain its freedom and win against an oppressive power.

Dialogue calls for equality Referring to the ideas of revolutionary 19th-century writer Mihály Táncsics, Gergely Karácsony said that “tyranny can only be overcome if people are freed from the yokes of poverty and ignorance.”

It is poverty and ignorance, a kind of 21st-century serfdom depriving the poor of access to schooling, that keeps Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s regime in power, he said.

Karácsony stressed the need to establish a fourth republic in which “freedom and equality go hand in hand and strengthen one another.” Fodor: Hope of liberal Hungary still alive.

Speaking at his party’s March 15 commemoration near the Pilvax Cafe, a historic scene of the revolution, on Wednesday, Fodor said “those who gathered here in 1848 had far less chance of winning against the Habsburg empire than us,” adding that the “democratic parties” have a chance to win if their desire to regain freedom is greater than their will to exclude each other from the political scene.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

MTI photo: Mohai Balázs