Budapest, Warsaw Mark Polish-Hungarian Friendship Day

Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony and Rafal Trzaskowski, the Mayor of Warsaw, commemorated the Day of Polish-Hungarian Friendship with a joint video this Wednesday.

In the video, Gergely Karácsony said that Polish and Hungarian patriots helped each other fight for civil transformation in 1848, for the overthrow of communist dictatorships in 1956 and in the 1980s, and the two countries joined NATO and the European Union at the same time.

"Today, Polish and Hungarian democrats must also join forces to fight their own governments, which in recent years have systematically dismantled democracy and the rule of law and weakened the international alliance that has been the longest-lasting guarantee of democracy and prosperity in the history of our countries," the Mayor of Budapest said.

The memories of Russian military aggression are deeply etched in the historical memory of Hungarians and Poles, and they urge us to show solidarity with our "Ukrainian brothers and sisters," he continued.

"Today, the hearts of all Polish and Hungarian patriots beat together with the Ukrainian people," Gergely Karácsony said, adding that "in spirit, we are all Ukrainians now.”

The Mayor of Budapest stressed that he would do everything possible to ensure that Ukrainians fleeing to Hungary receive dignified care and support international efforts to end "Putin's aggression" and the terrible war as soon as possible.

Rafal Trzaskowski began his statement by saying that "unfortunately, we cannot celebrate today because there is a terrible war going on in our neighborhood. However, it is all the more important to remember, because the historical friendship between the Hungarian and Polish peoples is based on the fact that both fought for the freedom of their countries, often in the face of Russian aggression, he said.

The mayor of Warsaw added that in recent years, some people might have thought that the current Polish and Hungarian governments were carrying forward the historic alliance between the two peoples, even though "together, they are trampling European and democratic values underfoot." It is precisely those values that have betrayed the friendship between the two peoples, he stressed.

Rafal Trzaskowski said that the two governments were only looking after their own, usually short-term, interests, in violation of the rule of law.

"The alliance between the two countries has collapsed like a house of cards in recent days," he said.