The future of Europe will be built on cooperation between independent nations, Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics said in Brussels.

Addressing a commemoration of Hungary’s anti-Soviet revolution in 1956, he stated that Hungarians need to define their freedom for themselves. Two attempts had been made to do so: in 1848 and in 1956, he highlighted. “The changes in Eastern Europe would not have come about in 1989-1990 had the attempt of 1956 to redefine freedom been a failure,” he added.

One of the messages of 1956 is that national cohesion is capable of miracles, he said, adding that another lesson was that democracy can only exist where independent nations do. The commemoration was organised by the European parliamentary group of the European Peoples’ Party, the Balassi Institute in Brussels and the cultural institute Magyar Hullám (Hungarian Wave).

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)