Hungary

Relations between Viktor Orbán and the rest of the European Union have hardly become more cordial after the 60-year-old Hungarian head of government addressed the nation. The occasion was National Day, as Hungary on 23 October marked the beginning of the failed uprising in 1956 against the Soviet Union, which then controlled Eastern Europe, including Hungary. The uprising was crushed by Soviet tanks and cost the lives of about 2,500 Hungarians.
     Orbán had travelled to Veszprém in western Hungary to deliver his speech to about 1,000 of his followers. The international news agencies report that only Hungary’s national television was allowed to broadcast the speech, which was also considered a kick-off to the campaign for the European elections in June next year. “Sometimes history repeats itself. Fortunately, however, what was at first a tragedy is now at best a farce. Moscow was a tragedy, Brussels is a failed contemporary travesty,” Orbán is quoted as saying, continuing: “We had to dance like Moscow whistled. Brussels whistles, but we dance as we please. And we don’t dance if we don’t want to dance,” he said. /ritzau/