Orban: 'We wanted free, independent Hungary in 1956'

Hungarians in 1956 wanted a "free and independent" country for themselves in the "Europe of nations", Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a state commemoration of Hungary's anti-Soviet uprising of 1956 at Budapest's Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music on Wednesday. On October 23, 1956, Hungarians demanded to be given back their right to decide freely how to live their lives, the prime minister said. "And even then we wanted a Hungarian, in other words a European way of life for ourselves," Orban said. "A free and independent Hungary in the Europe of nations. And there was no contradiction in this, since back then, Europe's western half was still actually the common home of free nations," he added.