By Krisztina Than
BUDAPEST (Reuters) – A top aide of Prime Minister Viktor Orban has triggered outrage by suggesting that Hungary would have fared better by not resisting the 1956 Soviet invasion, in comments that were also critical of Ukraine’s efforts today to push back Russian forces.
Orban, a nationalist who shot to fame in 1989 by demanding the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary, said his aide’s “ambiguous” words had been an error, while the leader of Hungary’s opposition condemned them as “traitorous”.
Orban’s political director Balazs Orban, who is not related to the veteran premier, said in an interview with website Mandiner this week that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had acted irresponsibly by choosing to resist Russia’s invasion in Feb. 2022, causing a war that has led to many deaths.
“Considering 1956, we would have probably not done what President Zelenskiy did 2.5 years ago, as it is irresponsible, as we can see that he led his country into a defensive war, many lives were lost and territories lost,” the aide said.
“Let me say again, it is their right and sovereign decision… but had they asked us, we would have not recommended this, based on what happened in 1956,” he added.
Hungary’s anti-Soviet uprising in 1956 was brutally crushed by the Red Army. The anniversary of the uprising, Oct. 23, is a major national day for Hungarians.
Speaking on national radio on Friday, the prime minister said it was important to speak “very carefully and clearly” on matters of such sensitivity.
“Now my political director made an ambiguous statement which is a mistake, as our community stands on the basis of the 1956 revolution, has grown from it,” said Orban, who has made national sovereignty a cornerstone of his rule.
Just as in the past, Hungary will “always defend itself”, he added.
‘SCANDALOUS’
Orban has upset Hungary’s NATO allies by retaining strong economic ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin even after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Hungary under Orban has also refused to send arms to Ukraine.
Balazs Orban did not reply to Reuters’ emailed questions. In a video posted on his Facebook page the aide said his words were “deliberately misinterpreted”, adding that “the heroes of 1956 are national heroes and their memory is sacred”.
But his comments caused a huge uproar in the opposition and in the media, with Hungary’s leading opposition figure Peter Magyar saying in a Facebook post that the aide “has no place in public life after his scandalous and traitorous comments.”
Magyar said the aide “had humiliated the memory of thousands of Hungarian freedom fighters”.
(Reporting by Krisztina Than, Anita Komuves and Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Gareth Jones)