Solidarity Demonstration in Budapest for a Free Ukraine

Entitled 'Let it be over!', a civil solidarity demonstration was held in Budapest on Saturday for a free and independent Ukraine and against the "swing policy" of the Hungarian government.

The demonstration, organized by the NGO 'One Million for a Free Ukraine', was held at the Pest end of the Elizabeth Bridge, on Szabad sajtó út (‘Free Press Road’), heeding a call of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Péter Juhász, one of the main organizers of the demonstration, stressed that while the civilians are in solidarity with the refugees and have done everything for them, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the Hungarian government have done nothing. “Orbán, however, is not the heart of Hungary, but the sticky fingers of Hungary, and these sticky fingers are already stained with blood as well", the speaker said.

He added that "we cannot let this happen, because the world will think that we are just like Viktor Orbán".

Actor-director Béla Pintér said that “we Hungarians, the heirs of 1848 and 1956 [referring to the Hungarian freedom fights subdued by the Russians], want peace, but not peace in which the Ukrainian people kneel before the aggressor, but peace in which ‘the Russians go away’ and stop the massacre of the Ukrainian people and their own soldiers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said, not only wants to make Ukraine, the Baltic States and Poland Russian, but also Hungary “if we let the swing policy of the Hungarian government continue”.

"We should not pay for gas with our souls and our honor, because gas and oil will dissipate in the air after a while, but the shame will burn even on our grandchildren," he added.

"Let us never again fall into the sin of shame, long live Ukraine's freedom, Russians go home!" Béla Pintér said.

Speaking about Viktor Orbán's position on the war in Ukraine, historian Krisztián Ungváry said that he believed that the national self-determination, freedom and the fight for freedom, which the Prime Minister had so much promoted earlier as the deified higher truth is therefore merely a political product of his Fidesz party", the historian said, adding that this is not surprising for a prime minister who "values the alleged Hungarian cuts in utility prices more than the blood of Ukrainian children."

As Krisztián Ungváry pointed out, “the people of Ukraine are today defending not only themselves, but the whole of Europe.”