Speaking at his party’s March 15 commemoration, ex-premier Ferenc Gyurcsány called on his audience to dare to be free and be good Hungarians and Europeans at the same time.

He said the freedom of the Hungarian nation is inseparable from the freedom of Europe just as it was in 1848.

Gyurcsány said “a key part of our shared European tradition is respect for human dignity, which the current Hungarian government neglects even though human dignity is not a right assigned to us by the government but one that all humans are born with and deserve.”

Gyurcsány said those who believe that isolation and rejection are the right answer to the current challenges the continent faces are having an argument not with the European Commission but with “our European roots”.

Instead of isolation, DK would like Hungary to be an open country where different mentalities can co-exist and people are not afraid of those belonging to different nations and dare to act with humanity, he said.

Gyurcsány said democrats must be able to shake hands because a democrat must not be arrogant, must not dictate, and must not claim the exclusive right to represent the truth. A few hundreds or thousands are blowing their whistles to protest against “the lord of tyranny”, and those in power are trembling, he said, referring to the demonstration of the Együtt party during Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s speech.

“I do not think it is possible to topple the system with whistles but everyone has the right to show the prime minister that they want a democratic country which opposes tyranny,” he said.

Gyurcsány said DK considers it a fundamental national and patriotic duty to preserve peace and stability because “the lord of tyranny must be chased away” by legal means, by way of election.

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

MTI photo: Mohai Balázs