Orban, US ambassador unveil George Bush statue in Budapest

"Hungarians have always regarded the United States as a home of freedom," Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Tuesday, at the inauguration of a statue of George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st president of the United States, on Budapest's Szabadsag Square. In his address, Orban noted that 19th-century Hungarian statesman Lajos Kossuth had been given "a heartfelt welcome" in the US. He also said that the US embassy, located in the square, had given shelter to Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty for 15 years after 1956. "We will never forget that the embassy's door was always open, thanks to the personal commitment of Mark Palmer, US Ambassador in Budapest between 1986 and 1990, to the young Hungarian democratic opposition," he said.