Hungarian opposition leader: Our people want to freely decide their own destiny

The leader of Hungary's Tisza opposition party Peter Magyar has said Hungary is part of the West, Europe and NATO, the national news agency MTI reported.

Addressing a party rally commemorating the 1848-49 Revolution and War of Independence, he said this was not due to treaties or legal clauses, but "because our destiny and the legacy of our ancestors put us there: we are Hungarians in Europe who want to live in peace."

“As Hungarians, we reject war and violence and leave fear-mongering and warmongering in the past,“ he told the crowd. "We are not afraid! We have learned from our ancestors that nothing lasts forever," he added.

Magyar said that 1848 was a year of fundamental choice: "to be slaves or free, serfs or landowners, to have our destiny dictated by others or to control it ourselves, to be ruled or to exercise power, to be subjects or citizens."

He said that Hungarians wanted to be free, to live freely and to decide their own destiny, not the "emperor, the landowner or the county prefect" to decide the fate of the people, but a “freely elected Hungarian parliament“.

Magyar said that TISA aimed to end inherited privileges and to ensure equality before the law, shared responsibility, true freedom of the press and the absence of censorship.

“The question then was the same as it is today: are we subjects or citizens?“, he concluded.