“To do this, we need to close the chapter on the past thirty, including the last ten years,” the mayor said.

Hungary has become two separate countries because it has been systematically torn in two, Karácsony said.

“We can see, hear and feel it on our skin.” This was done using the old method of ‘divide and conquer’, by pitting half the people against the other half, for it is always easier to find enemies than solutions,” he said.

“If we allow them to continue pitting us against each other … if we do not join our strengths but keep dividing it, we will end up getting weaker and weaker,” Karácsony added.

Today, the main common wish of the public is to put an end to this extreme division, the mayor said.

Perhaps it is also a public wish to follow the guidance of the great figures of 1848, who knew that national sovereignty and social progress did not mutually exclude, but mutually reinforce each other, he said. Karácsony said politics must change and the change required a revolution.

“Not the violent kind, but a gentle revolution.” The new chapter written by the gentle revolution should be about the 99%, not the privileged 1%, he said.


MTI Photo: Szilárd Koszticsák