29 January 2014, Budapest

Mr. Prime Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is with unashamed joy that I greet the Prime Minister of Poland! To our generation, they, members of the Polish Solidarity movement and the anti-communist resistance, are your personal heroes. Our personal heroes from whom we here in Hungary learnt the military tactics with which communism can be toppled. We also remember when Pope John Paul II visited Hungary and said that the Polish describe the common fate of Hungary and Poland by saying, and I quote: "the Hungarians and the Poles are brothers of the sword and of the glass." And indeed, the people of Poland and Hungary are linked by a long bond that spans many centuries.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Few people know, for instance, that in addition to many gallant Hungarians, 1600 polish knights also lost their lives at the Battle of Mohács. It is also rarely mentioned that in the 15th century Krakow University was not only the intellectual centre of Polish learning, but also of Hungarian students; more that one thousand five hundred Hungarian students attended Krakow University in those days, which represented twenty percent of the University's graduates. And yes, we also lived through October 1956 together. In October and November, blood donation and charity drives were organised throughout Poland. The number of volunteers was so high that the Red Cross could hardly handle all the work, according to contemporary news reports, and in those days donating blood was a three-hour procedure. The reports also tell us that during the twenty-day charity drive, the Polish collected 21 million zlotys to help the Hungarians, while the average monthly wage at the time was only one thousand zlotys. According to a report by a Polish journalist, the first words that they heard from the control tower, when they arrived at the airport in Budapest with the charity shipment, was: "Hurrah for Warsaw!". And reports also mention that Polish students in Olsztyn organised a protest at Red Army Square, temporarily renaming it Hungarian Rebels' Square. It is also a well-known fact that Polish soldiers fought side-by-side with the Hungarian revolutionaries in the 1848-49 War of Independence here, while Hungarians fought valiantly at the side of the Polish rebels during the Polish uprising in 1863. And in 1920, something that is rarely mentioned, in what the Polish refer to as the "Miracle at the Vistula", an important moment in Polish history, we Hungarians also fought valiantly.

Mr. Prime Minister, Our Dear Polish Friends,

We Hungarians believe that in the future, our common region can become one of the engines of the economic and cultural renewal of the continent. We also believe that this joint mission can bring our nations even closer together and bears with it excellent opportunities for both countries. The leadership and people of Poland, and I must stop to say a personal thank you to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, as they have on so many occasions during the course of history, have stood beside us, and in fact have stood up for us, in every difficult situation during these past few years. We owe our Polish friends a debt of gratitude for this!

Mr. Prime Minister,

I would like to greet you with a few lines of verse that is dear to many of our hearts. These lines of verse are from the Polish National Anthem: "Poland is not yet lost, So long as we still live. What foreign force has seized, Our sabres shall retrieve."

Mr. Prime Minister, Welcome to Hungary!

(Prime Minister's Office)